The Things We Dream
by V. Shalyr
Summary: In the wake of Stain's arrest, a new villain has begun targeting heroes in training. After two deaths and several disappearances, the government sends an eccentric duo to work with U.A.'s faculty and students to handle this new threat. They bring with them a very different perspective on the struggle to live a normal life in this superhuman society. Slash, NatsuxZeref
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

 **CHAPTER WARNINGS: None**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **1\. Prologue**

" _Here's the sad truth. All men are not created equal."_

 _~ Izuku Midoriya, My Hero Academia, season 1 episode 1_

 _13 years ago..._

"That child is a monster."

"It's lucky that none of his classmates were nearby when his Quirk manifested."

"It's not a Quirk. It's a curse!"

Zeref sat in a corner of his room with his knees pulled to his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around himself. He hadn't bothered to turn on the lights and the curtains were drawn across the window over his bed, so the room was dark.

He was cold even though he'd put on the heaviest coat he had. He didn't think he'd ever felt so cold before, and it was almost summer. Despite the closed door, he could hear the voices of the grownups all too clearly—his parents, a representative from his school, two men from the police force, and another representative from the government. Not that he needed to hear. It was easy to imagine what they were saying because he'd been thinking it himself since the incident after school.

The elementary school in question didn't want him back. They had been absolutely clear about that. He was the reason all the trees by the parking lot were now dead. The small, black bird that had been perched on one of the trees at the time was dead now too, and he couldn't get the image of it out of his head.

Zeref shivered.

He hadn't realized before that it was possible to feel this awful.

"What are we going to do with him?"

"He can't be allowed to live with the general population. It would be far too dangerous."

"But he's only seven."

"What choice do we have?"

His parents sounded upset at least, but not upset enough to want to keep him. Not that he could blame them really. The only thing left was where they wanted to send him. Where everyone else would be safe from his new powers. Why couldn't he have had a normal Quirk like most of the rest of his class? He'd have been happy to be one of the twenty percent minority that had no powers at all. Seven was really late to start developing powers, generally speaking. And it wasn't like he'd had any particular career ambitions that would have required having a Quirk. Anything would have been better than this.

A single tear escaped the corner of his eye and slid down his pale cheek, dripping into the collar of his coat.

How was he going to live like this? Would he even be allowed to live at all—if people thought his Quirk would cause too much of a disaster?

A sharp tap on his window jolted him out of his anxious thoughts. He uncurled enough to reach out and tug the curtains open a fraction. Sunlight spilled into his room, blotted out in part by a wild-haired boy who wasted no time shoving up the unlocked windowpane and climbing through.

"Natsu, you shouldn't be here," Zeref said, worried that the adults next door would hear them.

"I'm your best friend. Of course I should be here."

Natsu sat down on the ground in front of Zeref's corner and frowned at him.

"I heard about what happened today. They're going to make you switch schools or something."

"I know."

Zeref shrank further back into his corner, pressing his back firmly against the cool walls.

"Natsu, you can't sit that close to me. You might—I might kill you too."

"No, you won't."

"But Natsu, we don't know when it happens or why it happens. I can't control it, and—and that bird."

The bird fallen to the ground with its wings spread but unmoving—wings that would never fly again.

Zeref wanted to throw up, but he hadn't eaten anything since that event and had nothing in his stomach to throw up. Instead, more tears escaped his eyes and dripped onto the sleeves of his black coat.

"Maybe they should just let me die. I'll only cause trouble for everyone."

"No," Natsu said forcefully, slamming a fist into the wall by his friend's bowed head. "Don't say things like that. Nobody's going to just kill you because you got a bit unlucky and ended up with a Quirk that takes away life. There are plenty of people with dangerous and destructive Quirks out there. There has to be a way to make everything work out—so you can go back to school with us and get a job and live a normal life."

The dark-haired boy sniffled. A normal life seemed like the last thing he was ever going to have. He appreciated Natsu's determination and defiance, but sometimes, he thought his friend was a little too optimistic.

"I'm not being too optimistic," Natsu said, reading his mind—metaphorically, of course. "I'm making you a promise."

He reached out and pried one of Zeref's hands from his knees before lacing their fingers together. Zeref's hand was cold, but Natsu's was warm—almost hot. That's right, Zeref thought. His friend had begun showing signs of a powerful Fire-type Quirk similar to his father's.

"I promise you," Natsu said, catching and holding his gaze, "that you're going to live a proper life, and that you're not going to just be killed or locked away somewhere forever. You trust me, don't you?"

"I—I do."

"Then don't give up. Even if they do take you away for awhile, even if we don't see each other for awhile—don't give up. I'll find you, and I'll make it happen."

Zeref blinked away his tears and looked up into his friend's fierce scowl. Despite the situation, his first thought was to wonder when his friend's eyes, formerly black, had turned green.

"You don't have to keep that promise," he said at last in a very small voice. Natsu glared at him, but Zeref continued before he could snap at him, "But okay, I—I won't give up."

Because Natsu had asked him not to, and if even just one person still cared honestly about what happened to him, Zeref felt that maybe he could find the strength inside himself not to fall apart even though his world was unraveling at the seams.

Natsu relaxed, but didn't let go of the other boy's hand.

"Good."

It was the last thing Natsu would say to him for the next seven years.

.

When the men in black suits and ties took Zeref away, Natsu watched from the roof of his family's home two houses away. He didn't wave or say good bye, because doing either of those things would have made his friend's departure feel that much more real.

" _It isn't fair_ ," he'd told his father the night before. " _It's not his fault._ "

To which Igneal had said, " _No, it isn't fair. People do their best, but the fact is that the world's not a fair place_."

The wild-haired boy had bristled at that and demanded to know, " _Are you siding with them?_ "

" _No, that's not what I said_."

Natsu could picture his father, lowering the day's newspapers and frowning at him over their smelly gray pages.

" _Son, you have to be patient. If you want to help him, you will find a way. I have every confidence in you. But it's not going to happen by tomorrow. It might not be his fault, but the fact is that Zeref's new abilities could ruin thousands of lives. Blind anger is not going to do either of you any good. You have to think things through_."

Natsu's fists clenched at his sides. He knew his father was right, but seeing his friend's slight figure disappear into the back of the giant white van, his thin shoulders hunched under his heavy coat as though trying to withdraw into himself, Natsu couldn't stop the anger from boiling back up. All the government representatives—and even Zeref's own parents—kept at least five meters away from him on all sides, which was the radius of the patch of dead vegetation before their elementary school. There was no sign of the black fog from that incident, but no one was taking any chances. Even from this distance, Natsu could sense the tension and the fear.

They didn't have a choice, Natsu reminded himself. They didn't know for sure yet that the black fog would always be visible, or how quickly the fog would spread. But—damn it, what about Zeref? Was anyone bothering to ask him how he felt about all this? What had they told the people who would be looking after him wherever it was they were taking him? Just that his Quirk was deadly and unpredictable, and that he had to be kept isolated from all living things? Whatever their reasons were and however reasonable those reasons might be, this was no different from sending Zeref to prison.

Natsu hoped the other boy wasn't letting the poisonous atmosphere get to him. Zeref was, at heart, one of the most thoughtful and sensitive people that Natsu knew. All of this was bound to be hurting him.

"He'll be okay," Natsu said aloud, half to reassure himself and half to remind the dejected figure in the distance, although he knew Zeref couldn't hear him. It was a promise too, and Natsu never forgot his promises.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

 **AN** : Okay, so a few things...

IMPORTANT NOTE:

I am still struggling to decide if I need to up the rating for this story. If I do, it will only be for a few scenes. Or I might just cut the scenes that I'm not sure about out of the version I post (or maybe mark them out). I'm not sure. As a precaution, no matter what I decide, I will be including chapter warnings in addition to general warnings at the start of each chapter.

Not So Important Notes:

I will be modifying Fairy Tail characters' original magical abilities a little to fit the world better. For one thing, Dragon Slayers will NOT be able to "eat" their elements, but they will be immune/resistant. There will be a brief description of Slayer characteristics in chapter 2, and a detailed description of Zeref's abilities in chapter 4. As a heads up, I am also dispensing with Dragon Slayer motion sickness, because I don't feel like dealing with it in this story.

For people unfamiliar with my Fairy Tail stuff, character relations for my fics are always only as explicitly stated in the fic (i.e. who is or is not related to whom). I am a huge NatsuxZeref fan (have been for a very long time), and the way I write them comes from when in the series I fell in love with the pairing.

.


	2. Heroes in Training

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

 **CHAPTER WARNINGS: mention of past attempted suicide**

(Please note that chapter warnings are for more specific things that I think I should maybe mention **in addition to** things in general warnings)

 **AN** : I will be introducing characters first name and then last name. I realize it should be the other way around in Japan, but I think the Fairy Tail characters' names sound better first then last. I guess you could call it a precaution for if I need to introduce Fairy Tail characters' full names.

Also, I apologize in advance for Bakugo's conspicuous absence, considering how loud he can be. I really don't want to work with him. Besides, I don't feel like I understand him at all, so I wouldn't be able to do a good job anyway.

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **2\. Heroes in Training**

" _The world is full of unfairness. It's a hero's job to try and combat that unfairness."_

 _~ Shota Aizawa, My Hero Academia, season 1 episode 5_

 _In the present 13 years later..._

The face on the computer screen was blank and unsmiling, but that was nothing new. Aizawa thought that the Zero Facility staff probably practiced maintaining a mask of indifference.

"Have the necessary preparations been made?"

"Yeah, the principal's seen to all that."

"And you are familiar with the standard precautions?"

"You know I am. Do you really have to ask every time?"

The face frowned but grudgingly continued speaking, repeating all the standard precautions again anyway—either because he felt it was his duty or just to spite him.

Aizawa sighed, but didn't interrupt. He was more than ready for this call to be over.

So the government was sending those two, huh? He should have expected it after the first child's body had been found.

He remembered Natsu quite well. In his years as a teacher at U.A. High, Aizawa had encountered many unusual students, but even among those students, Natsu had been strange. Not because of his attitude—god knew plenty of these students had way too much attitude—but because he had not, in fact, wanted to be a hero.

" _What? But if you don't want to be a pro hero, why the hell are you in the hero course?"_

 _The wild-haired boy glared at the classmate who had spoken. "Because there's someone I need to save, and to do that, I have to get better at using my powers."_

" _So you have to get a hero license."_

" _Maybe. But I told you. I'm not going to be a hero."_

" _But there aren't any other jobs that need a license for using Quirks."_

" _Yes there are. Or there can be. You just don't know about them."_

" _Then how do you know about them?"_

" _I'm not allowed to talk about it."_

Which of course meant that all of his classmates were then dying to know. Natsu had remained stubbornly silent on the subject, however, and so after awhile, the others had stopped asking.

After class a few days later, Natsu had approached him with a question.

" _Hey, teach, is it true that you can temporarily cancel out someone's Quirk just by looking at them?"_

 _Aizawa finished cleaning off the blackboard before turning to look at him. He wasn't an especially popular hero, so his Quirk was not that well known—which suited him just fine, since it made his job that much easier. Besides, as far as Aizawa was concerned, media coverage and fans just got in the way of hero work._

" _Certain types of Quirks, yes. Why?"_

 _Natsu frowned, not answering right away. Aizawa had never seen the boy so serious, except perhaps when he'd said that he had no intentions of becoming a hero._

" _Have you ever heard of the Zero Facility?"_

 _Yes, as a matter of fact, Aizawa had. What he didn't understand was how this high school student had learned of it._

" _I... have a friend who's staying there," Natsu said after a moment. "Since you can cancel out abilities for a short time and you're a teacher at one of the most famous hero programs around, maybe they'll let you in."_

 _Aizawa said nothing, waiting for him to elaborate._

" _My friend... He's not generally allowed to see anyone. If you know of the place, you should know that they don't really allow electronic communications unless you've got a zillion clearances. They used to let us write to each other, but then there was a villain attack two years ago and that stopped." Natsu scowled, his expression going stormy. "Practically no one there trusts him at all."_

" _Or they don't trust the people who might hear of what he can do and want to use him," Aizawa said quietly. He thought he was beginning to understand. "The Zero Facility is dedicated to studying particularly strange and dangerous Quirks."_

 _The boy acknowledge this with a nod, although Aizawa couldn't tell if he actually believed it. There was a smoldering anger not quite hidden in the boy's fierce stare that Aizawa couldn't decide if he needed to worry about._

" _I think I might know who you're referring to," the homeroom teacher said at last, choosing his words with care._

" _You do?"_

 _Aizawa nodded. "You probably don't know this, but the staff at the Zero Facility approached U.A. some time ago to discuss schooling arrangements for a child that had been placed in their care. I heard about it from the principal when I began teaching here. They wanted teachers that they knew could keep secrets and wouldn't be too shocked by unusual Quirks. The Zero Facility isn't a prison, you know. They do actually care about helping people like your friend. But they also have to consider what's best for society."_

 _Natsu looked away, but a little bit of that anger seemed to ebb away. "I know. Zeref told me that they weren't too bad, and they were trying to help him understand his Quirk. But that doesn't change the fact that half of them are scared stiff of him and most of the others treat him like a science project. He's still alone in there, and I want to make sure that he knows I haven't forgotten about him. No one should have to live like that for an entire lifetime, especially when he's never done anything wrong."_

 _Natsu met his eyes again and grinned, showing fangs. "Crazy as it sounds, I'm kind of glad that those villains attacked. If they hadn't, we wouldn't know that people with dragon type Quirks like mine aren't affected by that black fog."_

" _Cobra," the teacher said, recalling the one villain he knew with a dragon type Quirk. Most of these individuals, collectively dubbed Dragon Slayers for the raw power of their combat abilities, were either professional heroes or heroes in training. Their Quirks were certainly both powerful enough and flashy enough to garner media attention and popular approval._

" _Yeah. Apparently, he was the only villain who survived. Anyway, it means that we have a chance, and I won't have to break Zeref out of there after all. There might be another way."_

 _Aizawa had the feeling he had just heard something he shouldn't have heard, but he understood how the boy felt. At least everyone else in the Facility was allowed to leave it now and then. Living like that, surrounded by white walls and pale furniture meant to make his power more visible, isolated from the world in general and most people in it—that was really not living at all._

"Aizawa? Aizawa! Have you heard a single word I've said?"

The high school teacher focused his gaze back upon the computer screen.

"Of course I heard. You always say the exact same thing."

The man on the screen pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers, the first outward sign he had shown of his exasperation.

"Fine, suit yourself. I'll let my superiors know that you're prepared and understand the risks."

"When will they arrive?"

"They have some business to finish up right now, so you should expect them in two days."

"Understood."

Aizawa ended the video call and went to stand at the window of his office. The late afternoon sky blazed with shades of vivid orange and red. Aizawa had never been superstitious, but all the same, he hoped that that wasn't a bad omen.

.

Despite pro hero and high school teacher Shota Aizawa's misgivings, the morning after his conference call dawned bright and clear. Puffy, white clouds drifted across vivid blue skies like a picture from a children's storybook. Of course, that didn't mean that people weren't nervous or concerned.

In a small apartment some distance from U.A. High, Izuku Midoriya switched off the television with a groan and flopped back on the overstuffed, blue sofa, resting one arm across his eyes. Getting up to watch the news because he couldn't sleep didn't seem to have been the best idea. Everything in the news these days was one disaster after another.

Those two students from Hosu were still missing. Both of them had been enrolled in professional hero training programs, and both had last been seen getting on a shuttle on their way back to school. With the recent arrest of the Hero Killer Stain in Hosu, speculations on what had happened to the missing students were running rampant. Although the search parties grew bigger every day and the search area kept getting wider, there were still no clues as to where the students had gone. People whispered that they were probably already dead, but since no bodies had been found either, no one knew quite what to believe.

Izuku was glad that his mother wasn't home at the moment. If she'd seen the news report, she would only worry.

He removed his arm from his eyes and held it up in front of his face. He'd gotten used to looking at his crooked right hand, left over from all the damage he had done to himself by using One for All during his fight against Todoroki in the U.A. Sports Festival tournament. It was a reminder to himself that he had to work even harder to master his Quirk.

" _You survived, yes, but only because the Hero Killer let you."_

Gran Torino hadn't been wrong. That fight in Hosu could have easily been the end of him, Iida, and Todoroki.

Five percent. He could safely access five percent of One for All's power right now, which was better than he'd been able to do before but still nowhere near good enough. And after that fight with Stain in Hosu and all the things that All Might had told him about the history of his own inherited power—this power that he had passed on to Izuku...

No, he couldn't focus on that right now. The recent disappearances, that was what currently had him really concerned.

"I wonder if this has anything to do with why our summer training got delayed," he said aloud.

Speaking of which, he had to get going if he wanted to get to school on time to hear whatever it was Aizawa wanted to tell them. Even though final exams had ended, both the 1A and 1B hero program students had been told to remain at school and await special instructions.

Special instructions.

Izuku wondered what those were going to be. The school hadn't been clear on the details, but he had his suspicions.

Ever since the Hero Killer's arrest, other villains had been crawling out of the woodwork—criminals who sympathized with the Hero Killer's motives or simply wanted to capitalize on the chance to cause mass mayhem. The pro heroes really had their work cut out for them. Maybe the school was planning a different training regiment for them, or another internship. Certainly, with the way things were going, they needed all the extra experience they could get.

.

Aizawa looked across the top of his desk at the students of his homeroom class. Rumors were buzzing throughout Japan about the incredible potential of these Class 1A heroes in training, and Aizawa could see why people were so interested. After one semester of acting as their homeroom teacher, he could honestly say that many of these students showed incredible potential, although whether that potential would be put to constructive or detrimental uses remained to be seen.

"I assume you have all heard of the disappearances of Jenny Mikaka and Yusuke Fujiwara."

The class fell silent, all eyes focusing on their homeroom teacher. Kaminari moved from the edge of his desk back down to the blue plastic chair where he was supposed to sit during lectures. Izuku pulled out a notebook and a pen, preparing to jot down notes on anything important. Beside him, Iida sat straighter in his seat, gaze fixed squarely upon the front of the room and their teacher's grim visage.

It was easy to tell that these students, young though they were, had already encountered real villains and experienced what it was like to fight—not only for their own lives, but for the lives of others. For the most part, Aizawa thought that that was good. Pro heroes could not afford to stay naive.

"The truth is," Aizawa said in the serious, tired way he delivered most of his speeches, "there have been several other similar cases. Only since they didn't take place in Hosu, they weren't covered as extensively by the media."

Izuku's hand clenched around his pen. "There were others?"

"That's right," Aizawa replied. "The good news is that we believe at least some of them are still alive."

"Only some?"

The teacher nodded, his mouth set in a solemn line. "The police have recovered two bodies."

Gasps and mutters swept through the room, only to quiet again when the teacher continued.

"A hero agency in Shibuya helped retrieve the first body from the basement of a flower shop that had been closed down for renovations. The second corpse was left before the Hosu police station with a note. We believe that for these first two victims, the villain was testing out his own powers—preparing himself, if you will."

"Preparing himself for what?" Ochaco asked, raising her hand. Her voice trembled just a little, but her gaze remained steady. Participating in the Sports Festival competitions and interning with the Battle Hero had given her a new sense of resolve, and it showed at times like these.

"For this." Aizawa held up a piece of paper, its front covered in neat, typed text. "This is a copy of the note found in the second victim's pocket. You can read the details yourself if you want, but essentially, it's a challenge."

With his other hand, Aizawa held up three fingers. "If the contents of this letter are true, and we're working under the assumption that they are, the villain has kidnapped three students in addition to the two that have already been killed. He's giving us three weeks to find and save them."

"You mean the pro heroes," Iida said, attempting to clarify their teacher's statement, but Aizawa shook his head.

"No. Us, or rather you, as in the first-year U.A. hero program students."

"But why us?" Ochaco asked, her voice slightly high with surprised anxiety. "Wouldn't it make more sense to challenge the pro heroes?"

Izuku was the one who answered her. He'd ben thinking overtime about this since this meeting had begun.

"That doesn't sound like this villain's goal. I mean, he's targeting hero program students, young people who want to become heroes. And U.A. has the most famous hero program around. He's basically challenging the next generation of pros—or, trying to get rid of us before we become real competition. What easier way to attack the whole system of pro heroes? Not to mention it'll scare and infuriate people at the same time."

"So he's attacking children," Todoroki commented, frowning. "How despicable."

"Midoriya has the right idea," Aizawa said. "And this situation is expected to become a lot more dangerous. We seriously doubt that this villain will simply sit back and see how we do for the next three weeks. To this effect, the government has assigned a team to help us specifically with this new threat."

"Are they pros?"

"They're good enough to be, rest assured of that, but no. They aren't part of any hero agencies and don't generally get involved in hero work. That's why they're allowed to work with you. One of them, Natsu, did graduate from the U.A. hero course a few years back though. They specialize in dealing with criminals like this one."

Aizawa waited for the noise to die down before he continued.

"There are a few things you need to know before the team arrives that will be leading this," Aizawa explained, staring grimly around the room at each of his students in turn. "First of all, nothing we talk about in this room goes anywhere outside of the school, all right? This includes anything you learn from now on about the people you'll be working with. And as for one of our guests, the one with dark hair—don't startle him. Don't walk too close to him. Do not, under any circumstance, touch him."

"Uh, can we ask why?" Kaminari said, raising his hand. "I mean, that sounds pretty extreme, don't you think?"

Their teacher's expression only grew more serious. "Because you might die."

There was an instant uproar.

"What? No way!"

"He can't be serious. He's got to be exaggerating."

Aizawa raised his voice a fraction to be heard. "You have a twenty minute break, then I want to see both you and the 1B class students in the cafeteria for further instructions."

.

Izuku wasn't surprised when Ochaco Uraraka and Tenya Iida followed him to the school library. Since the start of the school year, the three of them had become fast friends, and both of them knew that Izuku was one of the best people to go to if they wanted more information and a thoughtful analysis of what was going on.

"What are you hoping to find here?" Iida asked, adjusting his rectangular glasses and peering around at the many shelves crammed with papers, folders, and books. "We can help you search."

"Well, I was thinking about that person who's going to be helping us, the one that graduated from U.A. High. If we're going to be working with him to catch this new villain, it would be helpful to know more about him, like his Quirk and what kind of person he is."

"That's true," Ochaco said, lifting a finger to her lips in thought. "Mr. Aizawa said that his name was Natsu, right? That's not a super unusual name though."

"True, but we know he graduated from the hero course but didn't go on to become a pro. That's pretty unusual for a U.A. graduate. It should help us narrow it down."

"Good thinking," Iida said, marching towards one of the library computers. "It'll be faster if we start with the school's online archives."

"I'll go see if I can find any copies of the last couple years' yearbooks," Ochaco said, moving off in a different direction.

Which left Izuku with the newspaper collection in the back and the librarian. Under other circumstances, it would probably have been smarter to wait for Iida to narrow down their search to one particular graduating class, but Izuku felt like he'd heard the name "Natsu" before. Where though? And when?

If the guy wasn't a hero, then it couldn't have been when Izuku was taking notes on various heroes. He obviously wasn't a villain either, so he wouldn't have been in the hero news that Izuku kept track of so religiously. That left the annual U.A. Sports Festival where the students of the world's most famous hero training program showed off their abilities. As a hero track student, he would have been required to participate.

With this in mind, Izuku set about sorting through the many neatly folded newspapers from ones that had been distributed during the Sports Festivals from previous years.

Five minutes later, Izuku's search was interrupted by Iida, who had a piece of notepaper in his hands.

"For some reason, there was very little information available," he said, glancing down at his notepaper, "but I did find two possible years. One from three years ago, and one from about fourteen years ago."

"Three years," Izuku muttered, rifling through the newspapers he'd selected for the corresponding date. "Fourteen years would probably be too long ago. I'm sure I remember the name, and I would have been far too young then."

"Deku!" Ochaco called out to him as she rounded a bookshelf with an open yearbook in her hands. "Look at this. Do you think this is him?"

She turned the yearbook around so that her friends could see the rows of student photographs. Narrowed eyes glared out at them from the picture in question from beneath a wild mop of salmon-colored hair. His jaw was set with grim determination, and unlike most of his peers, the young man was not smiling.

"Hey, that's the same guy in this photo," Izuku said, pulling one particular newspaper from his pile.

Sure enough, the same wild-haired young man could be seen in the black and white image, grinning a shark's grin at the camera that showed unnaturally sharp fangs.

"It looks like he took first place at his third Sports Festival," Izuku murmured, scanning the first page of the article. "I don't get it. Why would someone so skilled just drop off the map after graduation? With a record like that, he must have gotten plenty of offers from pro hero agencies looking to recruit new members."

Iida frowned and pointed at a line of text at the top of the yearbook page. "Look at who his homeroom teacher was."

Izuku read aloud, "Shota Aizawa. Whoa, so that means that Mr. Aizawa was his homeroom teacher too?"

"It looks like it." Ochaco closed the yearbook and added, "Unfortunately, there isn't anything else on him in this."

Izuku turned back to the newspaper article. "Well, we should be able to find out at least what his Quirk is from this."

"Perhaps you should make a copy of it," Iida suggested, glancing towards the clock upon the library wall. "If we don't leave soon, we'll be late to the cafeteria."

"Right. I'll go do that. Could you two check if he's mentioned in any of these other articles?"

The taller boy nodded. "Leave it to us."

.

In the faculty conference room, All Might frowned. "I don't like this. How can we just sit back and watch when this villain's killing children?"

The other teachers around the table muttered their agreement.

"That's why we won't just be sitting back, even though we _will_ mostly be watching," Principal Nezu said, his voice ever calm and collected. Round, dark eyes peered around at the members of his staff from an unusually solemn, furry, white face. "As you know, the killer has been targeting students enrolled in the various hero programs throughout the area. It seems safe to assume, since it was not stated otherwise in his letter, that he will continue to do so during this three-week period. That's why all of you will be assigned a group of students to watch over, which will include anyone from the hero program who is not chosen to work on the official search team."

"About this search team," Cementoss started, a frown stamped across his blocky, concrete features. "I'm not familiar with either of the two young men who will be joining us here. Are they reliable? Do we know if they have the right qualifications to lead this operation?"

"Hmmm." The principal's long tail swished. "I think Aizawa would be the best one to answer that question. I believe he is fairly familiar with both of them. In fact, Natsu was in his class."

"Wait, one of them was actually in your class?" All Might exclaimed. "What kind of people are they? What are their Quirks?"

All eyes turned to Aizawa, who sighed.

"They're reliable. As for their Quirks... Natsu's is called Fire Dragon, and he's one of the group of Quirk users generally referred to as Dragon Slayers. You've probably heard of them, since several of them are pro heroes. They can control and are immune to their particular elements, and they have highly enhanced physical and sensory capabilities. Natsu was quite famous in his graduating year because he was the only U.A. hero course student who turned down all the offers he received from hero agencies that wanted to recruit him despite having some of the highest scores in the class."

"What? Why would he do that?"

"You know, I've always wondered about that myself," Yamada declared, his loud voice sounding even louder against the grim quiet of the conference room. "He was awesome during the Sports Festival while he was a student. He even went and got his hero license, didn't he? What gives?"

Aizawa took his time answering. Honestly, he wasn't sure how much he should say. There weren't any security clearance issues here at the moment, not these days and not with the current crisis. But still, it wasn't really his business to speak of.

Then again, when it came to Salamander and his shadow, the more he could do to facilitate understanding and prevent misconceptions, the better.

"Natsu's goal was never to become a pro. He only enrolled in the U.A. hero program and worked as hard as he did while he was here because he wanted to save one person, and to do that, he needed combat experience with his Quirk and a license to use it."

"And who was this person he wanted to save?" Midnight asked, her curiosity piqued.

"A friend that was taken away from him when they were in elementary school. That friend, the boy who will be coming with him tomorrow, has a very, very dangerous Quirk. If you had to give it a name, you could probably just call it Death. He can kill all living things within a certain radius of his person by just thinking about it. Unfortunately, it's not something that he can completely control. Because of this Quirk, his friend was placed more or less in solitary confinement from when he was seven to the age of fourteen."

This revelation sent a ripple of disapproval through the assembled faculty. Dangerous or not, that was a cruel thing to do to any child.

At fourteen, things had changed. Natsu had started high school, and Aizawa had negotiated with the Zero Facility staff to arrange a meeting.

It was a meeting that Aizawa would not soon forget.

When the metal door of the underground apartment unit slid open with a hiss and the boy standing by the large, rectangular computer screen set into the right wall had spotted them, his first reaction had been shocked panic. Apparently, he hadn't been informed yet that he had visitors—that, or he hadn't realized that those visitors would actually be visiting him in person. From what Aizawa had learned, the boy mostly spoke to his teachers and the various staff members remotely through the facility's own electronic communications system. The villain attack two years before had further decreased how frequently he saw another human being face to face. Aizawa could still picture the slender figure dressed in loose black and white clothes backing himself into a corner of the room, attempting to ward them off as he demanded that they keep their distance—that they leave before something terrible happened.

 _Ignoring his warnings, Natsu moved across the room to stand in front of him. For a moment, he was afraid that Zeref wouldn't recognize him anymore. But then wide, dark eyes finally settled on his face and their owner fell silent, blinking up at him in open surprise. A fraction of the tension left his shoulders, but he didn't move away from the corner. Those eyes seemed much the same as when they were seven, only now there seemed to be more depth to them somehow. They were more sad too, more tired and edged with pain._

" _Natsu? But—how can you be here?"_

" _Hey, it's great to see you too," Natsu said, striving to sound as normal and not upset by the other boy's initial reaction to them as possible._

 _He wasn't entirely succeeding though, because Zeref was the one who hesitantly reached out to take his hand—even though Zeref flinched a little at the contact of skin on skin before he overcame his own impulse to jerk away and laced their fingers together instead._

 _Natsu looked down at their clasped hands and felt some of his anger fade, if only by a fraction._

" _I'm okay," the boy told him quietly. "I'm glad you came to see me, although I'm surprised that it was allowed."_

" _I didn't forget."_

" _I know."_

 _For their first conversation face to face in seven years, so much else could have been said. So much else might have been done. But for the two boys, finally together again after seven years of separation, that was enough for now. It was more than they had really allowed themselves to hope for this soon._

 _And even though Zeref was obviously not okay when a hand on his arm made him jump or a person seated beside him made him claustrophobic, Natsu was determined that this would change._

Aizawa had gone to stand outside after that, wanting to give the two some time alone. Besides, his presence was obviously making Zeref uncomfortable. The boy kept measuring the distance between himself and the U.A. teacher with his eyes and refused to let Natsu coax him out of his corner until Aizawa walked back to the door. Out in the hall with the door closed, Aizawa thought about how easily anger could become hate. He thought about what it meant to be a hero and about what it meant to be a teacher. He wasn't an idealist and he didn't believe in sheltering his students from the harsh realities of the world they lived in. But he was still a pro hero, and that meant that he was committed to bringing justice and to protecting what people he could.

Leaving the Zero Facility that day, Natsu had slammed a fist into the wall by the door hard enough to leave cracks in the sterile white plaster—not setting off any alarms by sheer luck. Then he'd squared his shoulders, thanked Aizawa for his help, and declared that the moment he graduated high school, he was getting Zeref out of that place no matter what.

" _So you don't want to be a hero, huh?_ " Aizawa had asked him offhandedly on the train ride back towards the U.A. campus.

" _No_."

" _You know, being a hero isn't just about all the flashy rescues and fights with villains that you see on TV these days. A hero's job is to help and protect people. It doesn't matter if it's a hundred people... or just one_."

Natsu hadn't said anything to that, and Aizawa hadn't really expected him to. It was just something to think about.

All the other teachers in the conference room were quiet while they waited for Aizawa to decide what else to say. What else could he say though? He wasn't going to tell them about the trips to the Zero Facility that had punctuated Natsu's high school career. The Facility staff had required that Aizawa be present and so he'd gone along, bringing any papers he had to grade with him and any documents related to his hero work that he hadn't had time to read. Just because he'd had to be there didn't mean he couldn't give the boys some privacy. Those quiet afternoons weren't anybody else's business. Nor was any of the information that Aizawa had read in Zeref's file or the conversation he'd had with the boy that one time he had gone to see him without Natsu's knowledge.

" _Mr. Aizawa?"_

 _The U.A. teacher stood just inside the doorway and Zeref looked up from the book he was reading on the couch by the far wall. It was a relatively safe distance._

" _His school work's improved a lot since you started helping him with his homework."_

 _Zeref just nodded. He knew that already. The shaggy-haired pro hero wouldn't have come all this way to tell him that._

" _You haven't told him about two years ago."_

 _Zeref went still. His gaze dropped back to the pages of his book. He didn't have to ask what Aizawa was referring to._

" _No, and I'm not going to. I... don't want him to know that I tried to give up, even if it was only once and even though I regretted it. Please don't say anything to him about it either. It's better that he doesn't know."_

" _You're probably right about that."_

 _Zeref lowered his head a fraction further in a nod. "He..._ needs _me to be okay... There's so much rage in him. Resentment too, I think. He hasn't said anything to me, but I can tell. I sensed it in some of the letters he sent me, but I didn't realize it was this bad."_

" _Well, he can be extremely single-minded," Aizawa pointed out. "Sometimes, a little too much so. And he's had a lot of time to stew."_

" _It's my fault," Zeref said. "He's only angry because of what happened to me. I... want to talk with him about what happened, but if I told him, I think it would only make things worse. His world is too black and white. Maybe later... Someday. But for now, we have enough problems already."_

 _For a long time, Aizawa didn't speak. He could only imagine how furious Natsu would be if he knew that his friend had attempted to commit suicide two years ago shortly after the villain attack. Not only had nearly all the villains been killed, but so had two of the research assistants on shift at the Facility at the time. Moreover, assistants whom Zeref had considered close acquaintances. Possibly even friends. It was probably why the staff had agreed so readily to Aizawa's request when he'd contacted them. They had attempted counseling, but there was only so much the psychotherapist on staff could do considering the boy's unique circumstances and without additional help. It was also how they knew that, in addition to his ability to kill, Zeref was an unnaturally fast healer. The boy had lost a lot of blood and been unconscious for two days, but he'd survived without so much as a scar. One day more and he'd been good as new. On the outside anyway._

 _Aizawa wondered if it would have been better for the incident to have left some physical reminders._

" _What about you?" he asked finally._

 _Zeref glanced back up at him, and his dark eyes were sad but calm—much calmer than they had been a few months ago. "I'm doing better, thank you. And... thank you. For bringing him back to me."_

Hell, in a way, Aizawa had watched the two grow up. Watched them start to piece their lives back together and find a way to start moving forward again. He even knew—or suspected that he knew—when they'd first kissed, although he made it a point never to ask either of them about their relationship. It wasn't any of his business.

Back in the present, All Might was growing impatient. "Well? What happened?"

"Nothing," Aizawa said flatly. "The two of them don't live all that far from here these days, though they keep a pretty low profile out of necessity. They're trustworthy, and they're good at what they do. Just leave the search to them."

.

The cafeteria hummed with nervous conversation. Izuku sat with his classmates at one of the many rectangular tables, listening with one ear while he skimmed the articles they'd found in the library. There wasn't nearly as much information as he would have liked, although the lack of information was probably telling in itself.

"I wonder why we're having this meeting in the cafeteria," Asui said, inspecting the thirty-nine other students in the room through large eyes framed by lank, dark hair that cascaded all the way down past her waist. "I mean, why not the auditorium?"

"That's a good question," Tokoyami said from beside her, his black, birdlike head turned towards the counter. "Look, they've even prepared food for us."

Before speculations could go much further, their teacher walked through the cafeteria doors. Gradually, the noise died down, and all the students turned to face him.

Aizawa didn't waste time beating around the bush.

"Only some of you will be participating directly in the actual search," he said. A few students began to protest, but he silenced them with a glare. "Those individuals will be contacted with further information later today or tomorrow. The rest of you are going to be divided into teams of four and given other related tasks. Until this villain is caught, the safety of your teammates will be your responsibility. You're not to go anywhere alone, and if you notice anything strange, you are to report it to the school immediately."

Aizawa set a stack of manila folders on the corner of a table.

"When you hear your name, come collect your information packet. Your teams and team leaders have already been decided based upon your particular Quirks and your performance so far this year. Once you get your packet, find your teammates and have lunch here before you leave. Talk. Get to know what everybody's powers are, and make sure you have a way to contact everyone on your team."

Oh, so that was why they were in the cafeteria.

Izuku waited tensely for their teacher to call his name, and the moment he heard it, he all but jumped up from his seat. The sooner he knew what his assignment was for the next three weeks, the sooner he could get started making plans.

Aizawa raised an eyebrow, but only sighed and said as he handed Izuku's folder to him, "Don't get yourself killed."

Startled, Izuku flipped open the folder and glanced down at the first page. What he saw there was so unexpected that it took him several seconds to process the words, and when they finally registered, he swallowed hard, his heart rate speeding up with both anxiety and excitement. It looked like he had been selected to be on the official search team. He and a few other students—not named in his file—were to report back to campus the day after next to meet their team leaders and receive additional orders and details on the case.

When all the folders had been distributed, Aizawa stood for a moment and just watched the various knots of students trying to plan out their next moves. Zeref had called him earlier that day to ask about a few of the students in his homeroom class. Aizawa just hoped that recommending Izuku Midoriya hadn't been a bad decision on his part. True, the kid wasn't breaking his own bones anymore when he used his powers and displayed a certain knack for strategy, but he could also be reckless. Still, his heart was always in the right place, he was an excellent team player, and he wasn't needlessly confrontational, and all those qualities would be important. Natsu and Zeref were not always the easiest people to work with.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

 **AN** : As requested, I am just reiterating that, in my stories, Natsu and Zeref are _never_ related. Also, thank you for being polite about it:)

I am trying to make sure that you only have to be familiar with one of these two series to understand it, so hopefully, it won't matter if you don't know much about My Hero Academia.

.


	3. To Live Our Lives

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

 **CHAPTER WARNINGS: referenced/implied sexual content**

(Just a note that I've decided for now just to cut anything I'm unsure about. If I change my mind later, I can always come back and change things then)

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **3\. To Live Our Lives**

" _It's okay to fall. It's okay to cry. You just have to keep moving forward."_

 _~ Izuku Midoriya, My Hero Academia, season 2 review episode_

The elevator hummed as it rose towards the top floor of the skyscraper. It was the tallest skyscraper in the area, boasting just over a hundred floors, so even though this elevator was programmed not to stop at any intervening floors, it was still a long trip.

Zeref glanced sidelong at the tall, blond man beside him then back down at the carpet. Among his possible chaperones, the Lightning Dragon Slayer Laxus had to be his absolute least favorite. If he couldn't stay with Natsu, he would rather work with Sting and Rogue. The two younger Dragon Slayers were good friends with Natsu and didn't make Zeref this uncomfortable. It helped that Sting and Rogue often bantered with one another, and so even if Zeref didn't feel like speaking, there could be something other than awkward silence. Laxus, on the other hand, spoke to him only when it was strictly necessary, and even then, he tended to use as few words as possible.

Zeref knew he ought to be grateful regardless. These people, Laxus included, were the only reason he was allowed to walk about outside at all. It was the job of whichever Dragon Slayer was accompanying him to—one, ensure that his Quirk didn't accidentally kill anyone, and two, protect him and ensure that no villain got their hands on him. The system worked. But more than six years in near isolation, speaking to people only from a distance or via a computer screen, had made him skittish and uneasy around others, and the blond man's overall attitude really didn't help.

Finally, after what felt like a tense, quiet eternity, the elevator slowed to a stop and opened its doors with a soft hiss. They stepped out into a brightly lit hallway devoid of decoration, which ended in a single wooden door reinforced with steel. To an outsider, it would probably have seemed a little excessive—ridiculous even. That same outsider would have been even more shocked to learn that Natsu and Zeref had all three of the building's top floors to themselves, despite only living on the highest level. There was a gym on the floor below that, but the actual apartment was at the top.

Then again, outsiders tended not to be privy to some rather crucial pieces of information.

Thankfully, Laxus didn't walk with him down the hall, although Zeref could feel his stare the entire way. The man's escort duty only went as far as the apartment's front door.

The high security, the constant supervision, the jobs Zeref went on, and even where he lived were all among the conditions for his leaving the Zero Facility. Maybe it wasn't what anybody would consider a "normal" life, but at least it _was_ a life and he was grateful for that.

When he was safely back in the apartment with the door shut and locked behind him, Zeref let out a sigh of relief. Honestly though, living could be incredibly stressful.

The spacious living room before him looked exactly as it had that morning when he had left it. Removing his shoes, Zeref walked across the plush ivory carpet and past the pastel blue couches arranged around the glass coffee table to the window that formed one entire side of the room. It was his favorite feature of the entire apartment. The heavy fabric of the curtains slid smoothly aside to reveal a panoramic view of the city bathed in afternoon light. This high up from everything, he didn't have to worry about his powers stirring and accidentally stealing the life of an innocent passerby. At the same time, he could watch the goings on down on the streets and see the colors of the skyline change as the sun moved from horizon to horizon. His room back at the Zero Facility had had no windows for security reasons, and so this view of the sky—simple though it might be—tugged at something inside him that was both happy and painful at the same time.

When they had first moved in here, the first time he'd stood by this window and looked out at the city's sea of nighttime lights, he hadn't been able to stop his own tears. He hadn't even quite understood why he was crying, except perhaps from the great sense of loss that had settled in him from the day that white van had taken him away from his parents and the house he'd lived in for the first seven years of his life.

Natsu had been alternatively worried for him and furious with everyone—the government and certain members of the Zero Facility staff in particular. He had been furious at them for how Zeref shied away from human contact and became anxious in places as everyday as a crowded restaurant. He'd been angry that Zeref had flinched away from him when he'd touched his shoulder, and angry also that it wasn't entirely the government's fault. It would have been so much easier just to blame them.

Natsu had been angry a lot in the past several years. Honestly, Zeref thought that the Fire Dragon Slayer had been much more upset about what had happened to him than Zeref himself was. When Zeref thought about the past, he mostly just felt sad and a little empty.

How long had it taken for him to stop flinching whenever anyone got "too" close? Even now, the only person whose closeness he was completely comfortable with—craved, even—was Natsu's, but that suited both of them just fine.

How long had it taken him to forgive his parents for abandoning him? Actually, he wasn't sure he _had_ forgiven them. He didn't blame them for allowing him to be taken away, but a part of him _did_ blame them for not trying to stay in touch with him. They were his parents. The Facility staff would have allowed it if they had asked, and it hurt more than he liked to contemplate that they hadn't.

Zeref shook his head and turned towards the kitchen. That was an old pain now, and it was a bad idea to dredge it up, especially when he was alone and most vulnerable to bouts of depression. They were supposed to be heading for U.A. either today or tomorrow, but that had to wait until Natsu got home. This job called for the both of them, and anyway, Zeref wasn't allowed outside of this apartment without either Natsu or another Dragon Slayer. In the mean time, Zeref would take a bath, make some calming tea, and wait for him—maybe meditate awhile. Some cake sounded good too. He'd been too anxious that morning to eat any breakfast.

.

Natsu was used to the smell of smoke. He was a fire wielder who also happened to be fireproof after all, and pulling people out of burning buildings had become a major part of his weekly routine. On most days, he didn't dislike working with the city's fire department, but today, his mind was somewhere else.

He kept his irritation under control enough not to storm through the apartment door, and pulled off his soot-stained coat, tossing it to the ground for later disposal. Honestly, with the technology people had these days, you'd think they could make clothes that were easier to clean, or at least more resistant to soot stains.

Zeref looked up from where he was curled up on the couch in a loose, white bathrobe with a teacup cradled in his hands. The sight of him soothed some of Natsu's tension, and he walked around the couch to lean down and capture the boy's soft lips in a kiss. He tasted faintly of chamomile and something sweet, and Natsu had to fight the urge to press him back into the couch cushions and ravish him right then and there. They had things they had to talk about first, like what information his partner had gathered that morning _without_ him.

"You're in a bad mood," Zeref commented, the words sounding a little breathless when Natsu finally let him pull away.

"I hate letting you go on jobs without me," Natsu muttered, flopping onto the couch next to him. He pulled Zeref into his lap and buried his nose in the smaller boy's dark hair. Zeref sighed, relaxing into the embrace, only just remembering to lean over and put his teacup on the coffee table before he spilled it.

Settling back, Zeref rested his head against Natsu's shoulder, and said, "Are you more annoyed that I had to go out on a job without you, or that I had to go with Laxus this time?"

"Both," Natsu grunted, turning his head to nibble on the shell of Zeref's ear. The shiver he got in response was soothing too. "I hate that the last time he got assigned to work with you, you came back with his scent on you. I hate that I have to share you with anyone for any reason."

"It was just a job," Zeref reminded him. "And I only smelled like him because he had to drag me out of the police station before I accidentally killed the officers."

It could have been worse. The Facility staff had told all the Dragon Slayers that they should knock him out if absolutely necessary since it was a surefire way to stop the black fog, but Zeref wisely chose not to remind his partner of this alternative.

"I don't care why it happens. It just bothers me that it does. You're mine. No one else's."

"Yours," Zeref agreed gently. Sometimes, he worried about his partner's fierce possessiveness—a byproduct, he suspected, of all the years Natsu had spent feeling like he was the only one who really cared, like it was just the two of them against the rest of the world. Zeref hadn't had time to develop that kind of mentality before Natsu "rescued" him. He'd spent most of his time blaming himself rather than other people. Natsu was different. He couldn't think about things in the abstract, detached way that Zeref had taught himself to. But it had gotten better over the last year or two, and honestly, part of Zeref was fond of it too and found a certain sense of security in it. He had spent too long feeling lost and alone in a world that he'd thought he had no place in. How the two of them might have turned out had Zeref not been taken away, they would never know, and anyway, such speculations were meaningless. As things stood, they were comfortable with what they had and where they were.

Natsu sighed, a bit more of his annoyance ebbing away. "So how was it? You went to see the bodies, right?"

"I did." Zeref closed his eyes, replaying that morning's visit to the morgue in his mind. It was one of the worst parts of these black-folder jobs. "The cause of death for both students was poison—something like the poison you find in nightshade, although one of them showed signs of strangulation. The coroner's report also mentioned prick marks on various patches of exposed skin, mostly on the forearms—very likely from thorns of some kind."

"Thorns? What, like rose thorns?"

"Probably not rose thorns specifically, but yes. They could be defensive wounds. They're likely also how the poison entered their bloodstream. Their guess is that this villain has some kind of plant related Quirk, either physical changes or possibly plant manipulation."

Natsu sensed a familiar shift in the air and glanced sidelong at the faint wisps of shadowy fog that unraveled from the body in his arms. How dark the fog was varied depending on the intensity of the emotion—generally negative, although not always—that had triggered it. Right now, it was nearly invisible, so it was likely Zeref hadn't even noticed that it was happening. Natsu didn't remark on it. No one was in danger, so there wasn't any point in drawing attention to it.

Zeref sighed. "They were so young. I'll never understand why people do such terrible things. I can only imagine how devastated their families must be feeling."

In truth, Natsu and Zeref weren't all that much older themselves, but they hadn't felt young in a long time.

Natsu changed the subject. "This will be your first visit to the U.A. campus, won't it? You excited?"

"Part of me is," Zeref admitted. "But most of me is rather nervous. We're supposed to be staying at the school until this case is over."

So many things could go wrong. Schools tended to have lots of people in them, and there was all the greenery he'd seen while watching the Sports Festival broadcasts. What would the students think of him if half the trees on their wonderfully green campus died because of him? What would the teachers, all of them pro heroes, think of a Quirk which could be used only to kill?

"I'm sure they've made the right arrangements," Natsu assured him. "And if it doesn't work out for whatever reason, we could just come back here. This apartment is close enough to campus."

The commute was always a risk, but if it came to that, they'd find a way to manage.

"I suppose that's true." Zeref pondered this for a moment longer then added, "Maybe I'm just nervous because it's a big change."

And as a rule, change made Zeref uncomfortable. It always took him awhile to adjust.

"Well, I, for one, look forward to showing you around," Natsu told him. "They have some amazing stuff—model cities for students to practice fighting in, artificial disaster zones for rescue practice, and that sort of thing."

A faint smile found its way onto Zeref's face. "I _would_ like to see that."

After all, it was a place where his partner had spent several years of his life. How could he not want to see it?

Natsu exhaled slowly and returned to nuzzling his partner's neck, savoring the clean and softly sweet scent like morning dew and autumn leaves. Zeref tilted his head back to grant him better access, letting out a contented sigh when Natsu scraped his teeth down his pale throat before pressing a series of soft kisses along his clavicle. The attention sent warm shivers up and down his spine, and he shifted a bit so he could wrap his arms loosely around Natsu's neck.

"I like this robe-thing when we're at home," Natsu murmured against his skin. "It's very accessible."

Zeref laughed. "Why do you think I changed into it? You always jump me first thing after I return from a job without you. I thought I might as well help things along."

"Do I? I hadn't noticed." Hadn't thought about it actually, although it didn't surprise him now that he had. "When's the car coming to pick us up?"

"Seven this evening. We'll be dining with Mr. Aizawa, All Might, and Principal Nezu."

He cut off in a gasp when Natsu bit the soft skin near his collarbone hard enough to leave a mark.

"That's plenty of time," the Dragon Slayer concluded.

"Not on the couch, Natsu. The window curtains are open. Take me to the bed."

"You do realize we're on the hundredth floor of a skyscraper, right?"

"Natsu..."

"Okay, okay."

Not that Natsu really minded having to move. It was an old and familiar argument, and really, he had other things on his mind right now than talking.

.

The cell phone on the nightstand beeped. Zeref extracted one hand from the tangle of bed sheets and limbs to reach over and pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey," Sting's voice sounded against his ear. "We've got the car downstairs. Are you guys ready to go?"

Zeref sighed, withdrawing back to the comforts of the bed with the phone in his hand. He was warm and pleasantly sore, and all he really wanted right now was to cuddle up to his partner and maybe see if he could entice Natsu into making love to him again. The Fire Dragon Slayer didn't generally require much tempting.

Perhaps sensing his reluctance, Sting said, "We can drive around the district and give you guys another hour. I heard you were both up at four this morning because of that morgue visit and the fire downtown. I doubt it'll matter if you're a little late. I mean, it's just dinner, right?"

That sounded very nice, but unfortunately, Zeref was a very responsible person.

"No, that's okay," he sighed, rolling over to shake Natsu's shoulder. "We'll be down in fifteen minutes. Natsu? Natsu, we're leaving now."

Natsu grumbled something incoherent and tugged Zeref down beside him again, shifting his weight to pin the dark-haired boy to the mattress.

Zeref chuckled. "Natsu, they're here to pick us up. We need to get dressed."

His words finally registered through the haze of sleep, and Natsu let out a displeased grunt before pushing himself off his partner and sitting up.

"Who is it?"

"Sting and Rogue. I assume that means we're taking a smaller car."

It would be less conspicuous than the van that they used when Zeref needed to sit farther away from the driver.

They got dressed in silence. They'd already packed for the trip, and while Natsu took their luggage to the front door, Zeref went through the apartment, making sure all the lights were off and everything was in its proper place. When he returned to the living room, Natsu helped him into his black overcoat and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips before unlocking the door and leading the way down the corridor.

It was all part of a familiar routine, and Zeref found routines calming—even routines as small and insignificant as the way Natsu reached out to touch his wrist while they waited for the elevator to arrive, a tiny reminder that he was not alone. And these days, keeping himself calm was a major preoccupation.

Zeref had much better control over his own powers now, but accidents were always a possibility. The problem was that his abilities were linked far more closely to his emotions than his intentions, and it was impossible to feel only what and when you wanted to. Routines helped to stabilize at least some of those emotions and minimize moments of anxiety and distress.

The elevator doors slid open with a soft hiss and they stepped in, turning to face the doors as they shut once more. Unlike Zeref's earlier trip through the skyscraper, this one was comfortable despite the silence. A window might have been nice, but this elevator didn't have one for security reasons, even though all the other elevators in the building did.

"I wonder how long we will be away," Zeref said, watching the lighted numbers above the doors change, counting down as they passed each intervening floor between their apartment and the ground.

"Missing home already?" Natsu asked, half joking and half serious.

"Maybe a little."

"Well, at most, we'll be away three weeks." Natsu's expression grew hard. "I doubt it'll be that long though. We'll get the bastard before then."

Zeref nodded slowly. That's right. They had a job to do, and the sooner they finished it, the less likely any more people would be hurt.

They hadn't been required to take this job. They reserved the right to turn down any assignment that the government sent their way, but it was advised that they exercise this right with restraint. The government paid them quite a decent amount of money after all, even if it was mostly so they could keep an eye on Zeref at all times. Anyway, the agents who generally worked with them knew what kind of jobs they were unlikely to refuse since both young men held strong personal values regarding right and wrong.

When they stepped through the glass front doors and the cool evening air swept over them, Zeref paused for a moment to adjust. Even after dark, the city brimmed with noise—people talking and laughing, birds chirping, the whoosh of vehicles racing past and the hum of distant traffic—all blending together into a seemingly endless din. The air smelled faintly of car exhaust and sun-baked concrete, but also of newly cut grass and clean water from the giant water fountain before the apartment building. It had all been so overwhelming when he'd first left the Zero Facility, and even though it had been three years since then, it still sometimes startled him.

"Hey." The front window of a dark blue car that had been idling by the curb rolled down, and a young man with messy, pale yellow hair waved at them. "Over here."

Five minutes later, they had stowed their luggage in the trunk, and the car was speeding through the streets towards the U.A. campus with its four occupants. Well, perhaps not speeding exactly. Whenever they could, Sting directed the vehicle down less used residential streets and back roads where people seldom ventured after nightfall. There was a reason Zeref usually only went out either extremely early in the morning or extremely late at night.

"Sorry we couldn't go with you this morning," Rogue said from the front passenger seat, turning to look at Zeref. "We were involved in catching those bank robbers last night. We tried to explain to the police that we had to escort someone this morning, but they still wouldn't let us leave the police station until after your scheduled meeting time at the morgue."

"That's all right," Zeref told him. "Thank you for trying."

"We're happy to help out," Sting reminded him. "I can only imagine what it's like, visiting a bunch of dead bodies with Laxus of all people. He's a pretty bad conversationalist."

"I don't think he spoke a single word to me the entire time," Zeref said, thinking back. "But I suppose even if he had, I wouldn't have known how to respond."

"If you guys need help with this next one, you'll let us know, right?" Sting asked, catching their eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Sure," Natsu said, "But you know it's one of _those_ jobs. Pro heroes like you two really shouldn't get involved."

Rogue was the one who responded then. "Yes, we thought that that would be the case after we saw the reports. All the same, let us know if there's anything we can do."

"We'll keep that in mind," Zeref murmured. "Thank you."

It was an offer that the two younger Dragon Slayers made every time, and Zeref appreciated it even though he also knew that he and Natsu would probably never take them up on it. Natsu was right. These assignments weren't the kind of assignments that professional heroes should get involved in. After all, killing was not something that a hero should ever set out to do. There was no reason to make murderers of them.

Zeref's hands twitched, curling into the fabric of his coat. A second later, he felt Natsu's calloused fingers on the back of his neck, massaging the base of his skull and stroking the bare patch of skin above the collar of his shirt. Zeref closed his eyes and relaxed into the caress. Gradually, his hands unclenched in his lap and the tension that had been creeping up the back of his throat eased.

The series of small motions did not escape the notice of the two people in the front of the car, and they changed the subject, launching into an energetic account of the robbery they had helped to thwart. It was a tactic that most of the people who worked with Zeref for any length of time were well rehearsed in.

"The crazy thing," Sting told them, "is that after we got out of the police station, one of the people who were caught in the bank during the robbery came to find us. Turns out the guy's a movie producer, and now he wants to make a movie out of us."

Natsu smirked. "You two? Acting? You going to do it?"

"We haven't decided yet," Rogue answered, lowering his head so that his shaggy, black hair fell into his face. "We're supposed to give him an answer by next week. Personally, I'm leaning towards turning down the offer. It sounds like a lot of trouble."

"It might be helpful for your rankings though," Zeref pointed out. "I imagine that it would be good publicity."

Sting agreed. "It would be, but it would also take time away from our hero work."

"Did the director guy say anything about what he had in mind?" Natsu asked. "I mean, if it's just about the robbery, people can watch that footage on the news."

When the vast, sprawling campus of U.A. came into view, the four of them fell silent. For the three Dragon Slayers, it was a nostalgic sight, since they'd all attended classes there at one point or another in the past few years. For Zeref... well, he wasn't sure what he thought about it really. He suspected that it was mostly trepidation twisting his stomach, but he also knew that dwelling on that would only cause the untimely demise of the many trees that lined either side of the expansive, pale brick walkway leading up to the front doors of the school.

The main U.A. school building stood several stories high and had been built to resemble the school's own logo, which consisted of the two letters of its name superimposed upon one another. By the light of day, Zeref knew that the building would be a vivid blue color, but at night, it looked almost black. A scattering of rectangular windows glowed upon the towering edifice, a sign that there were, indeed, people inside even though there were no classes at the moment.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Sting asked, addressing his dark-haired companion.

Rogue nodded. "It really hasn't been that long."

"I guess it hasn't."

With some reluctance, Zeref opened the car door, but he remained sitting inside looking down the walkway until Natsu walked around the car and offered him a hand.

"Come on, they're expecting us. I'm sure no one's going to be rude, and you already know Mr. Aizawa."

"It's not rudeness that bothers me," Zeref said with a sigh, but he let Natsu help him out of the car.

"They're not going to be afraid of you either," Natsu said firmly. "Don't worry so much. I can assure you that you're pretty far down on their list of scary things. We're here to help them after all. It might be a different story if we were here to fight them."

"He's right, you know," Sting chimed in, rolling down his window. "The faculty here are all pro heroes who've been in the field for awhile. They've seen way scarier things than your Quirk. If you guys don't hurry, you're going to be late."

From his other side, Rogue added, "Good luck, you two."

.

All Might wasn't sure what to expect.

" _Don't bother with your hero form_ ," Aizawa had advised him earlier that evening. " _It would just be a waste of your energy. Neither of them are going to go telling anyone your secret, and anyway, Dragon Slayers can smell sickness. You wouldn't be able to hide the fact that you're not well_."

Easy for him to say, All Might thought ruefully. He was so accustomed to keeping up appearances, accustomed to the fact that his seeming invincibility was sometimes all that gave people hope. Then again, from what the other U.A. teacher had said, these kids had been through far too much to see the world in such simple terms.

Kids. All Might couldn't help thinking of them as kids even though he knew they were what—nineteen? Twenty? Something like that. Certainly too old to be considered children. Maybe it was because all the information Aizawa had shared about them had been from when they were students.

Anyway, the point here was that the universally acknowledged, world's greatest hero had no idea what to expect when he arrived at the top floor office that had been converted into a private dining room. The moment he opened the door, he spotted the two strangers seated at the far end of the long table. A red line of tape about halfway down the table marked the closest place at the table that anyone else was allowed to sit.

"So is this how far your Quirk reaches?" All Might asked, drawing a chair over to the red line.

The black-haired one—Zeref, if he recalled correctly—appeared surprised by his straightforwardness, but answered after only a moment's hesitation.

"Not exactly. That's the closest an average person can sit and still be able to react quickly enough to avoid my Quirk when it activates on its own."

"So it matters if it's intentional or not?"

Zeref nodded but did not elaborate.

All Might thought he seemed uncomfortable talking about his abilities. Judging from his words, the pro hero assumed that that meant when it was intentional, his Quirk could probably both move faster and reach farther.

"So you're All Might, huh?" the other young man said, scrutinizing him through narrowed, green eyes. "You look a little different than on TV."

A lot different actually.

"Yeah, about that." All Might coughed, unused to sharing the story. "I was injured very badly in a fight a couple years back, so now, I can only use my full power for a few hours a day."

"Sorry to hear that. Must be kind of annoying."

"Uh, yeah, it is. But there isn't much I can do about it. That's just how it goes."

The two boys nodded and let the matter drop. They knew when someone didn't especially want to discuss something, and they also knew that sometimes, unfortunate things happened in life that could not be changed.

The door opened once more to admit Aizawa and Principal Nezu.

"I hope everyone's in the mood for sushi," the principal said cheerfully, setting several large, plastic trays upon the table. "This restaurant just opened up not that far from campus. Their sushi is really quite excellent. Very fresh."

"Sounds good to me," Natsu replied, grabbing two pairs of disposable chopsticks and passing one to his partner. "Thanks, principal. Hey, teach, long time no see."

Aizawa nodded, taking the chair opposite All Might. "I trust the two of you are doing well? I heard the apartment's working out well."

"It is, thanks. We haven't had any problems, and I don't think we will unless some weirdo decides to climb on the roof and startles Zeref here."

"Considering how many floors that building has, I think it's safe to say that that's very unlikely."

"Well, that _was_ the idea."

"It's quiet too," Zeref said, adding his two cents. "It helps. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the noise."

"Musutafu _is_ a busy city," Principal Nezu said. His paws moved deftly as he poured each of them a cup of tea. "No need to rush."

The principal set the teapot in the middle of the table and settled himself in the last unoccupied chair. Zeref couldn't help wondering what kind of animal Nezu was supposed to be. Although the white-furred principal resembled a human with an animal type Quirk, Zeref had read that he was actually an animal with a Quirk that made him extremely intelligent. His somewhat rounded ears and face reminded Zeref of a bear, but the long, narrow tail was definitely more mouse-like.

Not that it really mattered. Zeref was just curious.

Principal Nezu took a long sip of his tea before speaking again. "We've converted one of the more spacious office suites on this floor to temporary living quarters for the two of you. If there's anything else you need or would like to change, please let us know. We didn't have as much time as I would have liked to renovate the place."

"Does anyone else use this floor?" Zeref asked, picking at the slices of sushi roll on his plate.

"Yes, but they're all the way on the other side of the building," Nezu assured him. "We've also cleared out the rooms directly below yours. Luckily, the summer break has already started, so there won't be many students wandering around."

"That's good." Natsu grinned. "The students who attend this school can be a bit rowdy."

"I wouldn't talk if I were you," Aizawa said dryly. "Your class held the record for starting pointless fights, and you were a major contributor."

"Hey! My fights were never pointless."

Beside him, a very faint smile found its way onto Zeref's face, although he made no comments.

The meal proceeded in relative peace with the conversation meandering from topic to topic while never touching upon anything especially serious. Aizawa was the only person present who knew everyone around the table, so this time was about building a sense of familiarity and setting everyone at ease. Zeref, for one, certainly seemed to need it. There had been a subtle tension in him from the beginning that All Might hadn't noticed until it was gone.

When the last piece of sushi had been eaten, the talk finally turned to official business.

"Is there anything you need from us?" Principal Nezu asked, fixing his round, dark eyes on their guests. "The only specifications in the challenge issued by this villain was that we pro heroes could not help in the search and rescue or else the hostages would simply be killed. However, that doesn't mean we can't offer assistance from the sidelines."

"Thanks for asking, but we should have things covered," Natsu said, much of his earlier casual enthusiasm fading to something much more sharp and grim. "Most of the hero track students will be helping by gathering information and keeping up surveillance on one another. The students we've selected will work more directly with us to corroborate that information and try to locate either the villain or the hostages. Zeref and I are the only ones who will actually be fighting—if it comes to that."

All Might grinned. "I don't know. We do have several very promising young fighters in this year's group."

"I'm sure they're great at the kind of stuff you do," Natsu said, his own grin just a little too sharp and dark. "But our kind of fighting would be rough on them."

"What do you mean?"

"Like we said before, we're not heroes," the Dragon Slayer said dryly. "We're executioners."

.

The former office suite—now their temporary apartment—had been refurnished in shades of creamy blue and ivory. The pale colors were standard procedure, since it made it easier to spot the shadowy fog of Zeref's Quirk even at its faintest and least visible. Zeref was startled to spot a potted plant in the far corner of their new living room.

"It's fake," Natsu assured him after walking over to inspect it. "Wire and fabric by the looks of it. Really realistic too. They even scented it like the real thing."

"I wonder whose idea it was," Zeref said, making his way cautiously over to join him. Not that it mattered whose idea it was. Someone here had thought of it as an alternative to real plants for making the otherwise plain set of rooms more welcoming, and he was grateful for that effort.

Little things were important.

"Are you sure you should have said that at dinner?" Zeref asked quietly, although his gaze remained on the artificial, orange flowers. They were called birds of paradise, if he remembered correctly. He wasn't an expert on plants, but he'd seen such flowers before and their appearance was extremely distinctive.

All Might's shocked and dismayed face kept replaying in his mind. No doubt their "profession", if you could call it that, was unsettling to someone who considered himself the Symbol of Peace.

Natsu shrugged. "It's the truth. Well, _implied_ truth anyway. And he had to know it. Mr. Aizawa and the principal knew already. They don't have to approve."

That was the thing about black-folder jobs. They always dealt with the culprits behind mass murders or serial killings, those that the law had clearly condemned but could not easily reach. That was the main reason they had yet to turn down one of these assignments. Of course, the two of them didn't _have_ to kill the criminal. That wasn't actually written into their instructions. Capture was always technically an option. Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on your point of view—villains who committed such heinous crimes seldom volunteered for arrest. Instead, more often than not, they chose to fight when they were cornered, and Zeref sent them to an early grave. At the end of the day, their ultimate objective was to prevent more casualties, and it was implicitly understood that the demise of their target was not only possible but probable.

"No," Zeref said finally, "I suppose they don't."

Still, it _did_ bother him sometimes, and it was a nagging, persistent, unpleasant feeling. Zeref didn't like his job, despite the fact that both he and Natsu considered it justice. It was some consolation, however, that death by his Quirk was painless and quick.

What bothered him most about all this though, what really made his insides twist with guilt when people gave them that _look_ , was something else.

"I'm sorry for getting you involved in all of this."

He didn't have to look to know that Natsu was scowling. He could hear it in his reply.

"Don't be an idiot. I chose to get involved. Hell, I was the one who negotiated a lot of this for us, remember?"

Well, him, Mr. Aizawa, and select members of the Facility staff that Natsu actually liked. A teenager, even one with excellent records from the world's top hero program, wouldn't have had much influence. Even though Zeref's Quirk was no longer the frightening mystery it had been when it had first manifested, there were still plenty of people who didn't want to let the boy out of confinement out of fear—not only of accidental deaths, but of what a clever villain might be able to do. Then there was the challenge of dealing with the bastards in the government who wanted to use the deadly Quirk for "the good of the people", but really just so they had one more incredible weapon at their disposal. Natsu and the others had had to negotiate a balance—find some sort of compromise that all parties could accept so that he and Zeref wouldn't meet with too much future interference.

"But I've made a killer out of you," Zeref said quietly.

And he felt deeply that he couldn't apologize enough for that even if it wasn't strictly his fault. He tried his best to always be the one who actually did the killing when it became necessary, but it hadn't always been possible. It didn't help that Natsu was, Zeref had to admit, rather a lot more violent by nature than he was.

"I suppose I wonder sometimes if your life would have been better if we hadn't known each other."

At the very least, it would have been more normal.

"Are you _trying_ to make me angry?" Natsu snapped. "You know I hate it when you talk like this. I'm here with you because I want to be. It's not just for you. It's for me too. You should know that."

 _Because I love you._

Natsu didn't say the words aloud, but Zeref knew that they were there. The two of them had had variants on this particular conversation a number of times since their reunion, most of them during Zeref's first year out of the Facility.

 _And I love you too_ , Zeref thought. Sometimes, it frightened him just how much.

"Enough of this," Natsu said firmly, turning his partner away from the artificial plant and towards the suite's other rooms. "Let's check out what they've done with this place. We're going to be living here for awhile after all. We should start getting familiar with it and see if there's anything we need to change."

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

 **AN** : Huh, I'm having fun with Sting and Rogue in this story. They were very hard for me to work with in _Firelight and Shadows_ , but for some reason, this setting seems to make them a lot easier for me. I'll have to see if they can show up or be referenced more.

Eh, yes, I actually _have_ been trying to review some of the Hero Academia series, although I just haven't had the time to marathon it like I'd like to.

Ethics, huh? Yeah, I'd say this story does _not_ match up with all the values in the Hero Academia universe. I do like those values—part of the reason I like the series so much—but I also think that with an ability like Zeref's, it's reasonable to think things could turn out this way (granted, I guess I have a somewhat pessimistic view of human nature).

Someone asked whether Zeref will be able to make demons. The answer is that I haven't decided yet. It's possible, but for the purposes of this story, he doesn't know, so you can treat the answer like a no. Details on his abilities will be in the next chapter.

.


	4. An Unusual Team

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

 **CHAPTER WARNINGS: none**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **4\. An Unusual Team**

" _They're talking to each other. It may not seem like much, but it's important... Real heroes need to be able to communicate with anyone."_

 _~ Chiyo Shuzenji, My Hero Academia, season 2 episode 22_

" _Sitting down face to face and talking about things might not solve everything, but if we don't do it, we'll never understand each other at all."_

 _~ Rangiku Matsumoto, Bleach, episode 63_

Natsu and Zeref ate breakfast in the cafeteria, seated at a table that had been set up in the corner diagonal from the stairs. They could have eaten upstairs, but they were supposed to meet the students they were working with later that morning and the cafeteria seemed like a good place to do it.

"Did all the students eat lunch here?" Zeref asked, glancing around at the many tables that lined the spacious dining area with interest.

It was a fairly ordinary school cafeteria as far as Natsu was concerned, if somewhat more well furnished than most, but he could appreciate that his partner had never been in one before. Back in elementary school, they'd eaten in their classrooms or outside at the benches by the playground. It all seemed so long ago now. Their lives had been so different that sometimes, it felt like a past that belonged to someone else.

"Most of them," he answered, digging into one of the omelets a member of the kitchen staff had cooked for them. "The food here is good, and it's convenient. Reasonably priced too. It's also one of the few places where students from the different programs see each other on a regular basis."

Zeref nodded slowly and, just as slowly, began to eat.

"It's weird being back here," Natsu added reflectively. "When I graduated, I figured I'd seen the last of this place. Well, other than on TV anyway."

"Do you ever miss it?" Zeref asked.

The corner of Natsu's mouth quirked. "Miss school? No way! All those classes, homework, and exams. A person has to be crazy to miss that."

Still, that wasn't to say that he didn't have plenty of important memories associated with his time as a student here.

In fact, it had been in this very cafeteria that one of Natsu's classmates, noting his frequent speedy departures after school, had asked him with no small amount of curiosity if he had a girlfriend at another school that he was always rushing off to see.

" _Not exactly_ ," Natsu had replied, his vague answer only confirming their suspicions.

He hadn't denied it outright because it was an easy and logical explanation that his friends were ready to accept for his many absences. The Zero Facility liked to keep things confidential after all, so it wasn't like he could really explain. And even if he _could_ explain, he wasn't sure if he would have wanted to. His time with Zeref was precious to him in a very particular way, and even back then, he'd begun discovering a certain unwillingness to share even the memories of it with anyone.

Natsu hadn't given the question any more thought than that until later that same week when he'd found his mind drifting back to that conversation during his visit. He'd been sprawled on the ivory couch with Zeref curled against his chest, one of the novels assigned by Natsu's language class in his hands. The Dragon Slayer had draped an arm around him and was reading the text over his shoulder. In effect, they'd been cuddling, although Natsu hadn't thought of it as cuddling before. It was a routine Natsu had initiated as part of his private campaign to rehabilitate his friend to human contact. It hadn't occurred to him until that moment that he would _not_ consider doing this with any of his other friends. None of his other friends suffered from attacks of acute anxiety when anyone so much as put a hand on their shoulders either, but still—it was something to think about. And once he _had_ thought about it, he'd become keenly aware of the way the other boy's slender body seemed to fit so neatly against his own, the way he smelled like autumn leaves after the rain, and the way his loose shirt was sliding off one shoulder, exposing the clean line of his clavicle and rather a lot of smooth, pale skin. Little details that Natsu had no doubt noticed before, but that hadn't been that important a week ago.

The point was that Natsu had looked down at the boy in his arms and thought that an intimate relationship didn't sound bad at all. In fact, he'd liked the idea quite a lot, and he'd spent the rest of that visit trying not to think about anything too inappropriate so that he wouldn't give away what was on his mind.

Their first kiss had been two weeks later.

"Natsu?"

The Dragon Slayer pulled his thoughts back to the present and ate another bite of omelet. "Yeah?"

Zeref gave him a distinctly bemused look. "I'm usually the one who gets lost in thought. Are you okay?"

Natsu grinned. "I was just thinking about a conversation I had here my second year. You know, my classmates were very curious about where I went after school. You wouldn't believe how much speculation there was."

Zeref looked down, scooting the remains of his breakfast from one side of the pale porcelain plate to the other. "I always felt a little guilty for taking up so much of your time—and selfish, because regardless, I couldn't bring myself to let you go. I was terribly afraid that something would happen and you would stop visiting me."

Selfish, huh? If only he knew. There were days when Natsu was _glad_ that, because of Zeref's Quirk, so few people could get close to him. If _that_ wasn't an incredibly selfish thing to think, especially when the Dragon Slayer knew perfectly well how much distress this caused him, Natsu didn't know what was.

Well, everyone had to manage their own flaws. At least they were aware of them, and they knew that despite how messed up their lives had become, they loved each other—more than anything.

Neither of them had ever claimed to be perfect.

.

Izuku glanced at the screen of his phone then dropped the device back into his pocket. He swallowed nervously and glanced down the brick pathway towards the main school building.

It was only five in the morning—way earlier than he was used to getting up. Then again, it wasn't like he'd been able to get much rest anyway. He'd received the meeting time and location last night and spent several hours researching the missing students when he should have been sleeping. Well, at least he felt prepared. He could catch up on sleep later.

Squaring his shoulders, Izuku made his way towards the building's front doors, wondering as he went what to expect.

The moment he reached the cafeteria, Izuku spotted the two young men seated at a square table in the corner, already halfway through a breakfast of omelets and pancakes. Before he could greet them, the spiky-haired stranger he recognized from the newspaper articles spoke up.

"Stop right there." Natsu gestured at the line of red tape on the floor that defined a box separating their table from the rest of the cafeteria. Despite the early morning chill, he was wearing only a loose, dark vest and jeans. "For your own safety, stay on the other side of that line."

"Um, sure," Izuku ventured, slightly taken aback. "Can I ask why?"

The Dragon Slayer shrugged. "It'll be easier to explain the basics to all of you at the same time, so hold on to your questions until everyone gets here. Oh, and feel free to grab some breakfast from the kitchens if you haven't had any. They've cooked up plenty."

Izuku went to get an omelet, wondering the whole time who "everyone" would be.

Five minutes later, he discovered that "everyone" was Shoto Todoroki, Tsuyu Asui, Kyoka Jiro, and—to Izuku's surprise—Hitoshi Shinso, the boy with the mind control Quirk from the general studies program. Natsu repeated his warning about the red tape and then sent them all to the kitchen for more food. As they left, the Dragon Slayer rose and vanished out into the hallway, returning with a small, leafy plant in a clay pot.

 _O—kay..._

That was unexpected.

Natsu set the potted plant on Izuku's side of the red line before sitting down again, and the high school student wondered what it was there for. The dark-haired stranger glanced at the innocuous little shrub, sighed, and set down his fork, apparently no longer hungry.

One by one, the other students filed back into the cafeteria with plates of omelet and pancake. They joined Izuku at the table he had chosen, all the while casting curious glances at the two young men. The pair didn't appear to be all that much older than them, college age maybe except they probably weren't in school anymore. When all of them had settled themselves and begun picking at their breakfasts, too wary and curious to eat properly, the wild-haired young man pushed his own empty plate aside and turned to face them.

"I'm Natsu," he said, "and this is Zeref. The five of you are here because we've looked over your profiles, spoken to your teachers, and decided that out of all the first-year students, you'll get the most out of being on this investigation team—without endangering anyone or getting yourselves killed."

Well, that was blunt. Izuku wondered if he was imagining the veiled warning in those words. Probably not. Their teachers had been trying to drill the necessity for caution and careful judgment into them since the League of Villains' attack on the USJ.

"Before we get into the details of what we'll be doing," Natsu continued, "there are a few rules that you'd better not forget if you want to stay on this team. First of all, if either of us tell you to run, you run—no questions asked—as fast as you possibly can _away_ from us. Second, you should be alert at all times. Don't just expect us to give you warnings when we're out in the field."

Asui raised a hand, unsure how else to interrupt him. "Uh, sir, what exactly would we be running from? Because it kind of sounds like you're not talking about the villains."

The Dragon Slayer smirked crookedly. "Good catch. That's because I'm not. Oh, and call me Natsu. "Sir" just sounds weird."

Natsu glanced at his companion as though asking if he wanted to explain.

Zeref sighed but turned and finally looked at them, unsmiling. His eyes were large, dark, and solemn, set in a face that was softer and less angular than his partner's, but also more unreadable. When he spoke, his voice was quiet and clear—almost grave.

"My Quirk is quite literally deadly," he said, "and I can't always control it. Generally speaking, it responds to my emotions more than my intentions."

Natsu retrieved the potted plant and set it on the table next to his partner's unfinished breakfast. Zeref didn't look at it, but a second later, the watching students could perceive a gray, shadowy mist that seemed to unravel from his body. Almost immediately, the plant, once green and healthy, withered and died, the vivid green leaves turning brown and finally crumbling completely away.

Ignoring the shock of his audience, Zeref continued, "The color is sometimes faint and sometimes dark depending on the intensity of the emotion that triggered it. But make no mistake. You will be just as dead whether the fog is black or nearly invisible. The only difference is how quickly you end up as a corpse. I suppose if you moved fast enough and were extremely lucky, you might only lose a limb, but obviously, we would prefer to avoid that."

The words were chillingly frank, but that was probably the point. They could not afford to be careless.

"Does it work on all living things?" Todoroki asked, his own gaze flicking from the dead plant to the two adults.

Natsu was the one who answered him. "As far as we know, yes, with the exception of people like me. For some reason, individuals with dragon type Quirks like mine aren't affected, possibly because we're generally immune to the effects of Quirks that directly influence other people. There could be other abilities that would protect you—we can't say for sure that there aren't. For obvious reasons, it's not something you want to test unless you have no choice. We only found out about Dragon Slayers by accident."

And they'd still had to check to see if this immunity held true for Dragon Slayers in general and not just that one villain in particular. Natsu had insisted, and it still gave Zeref nightmares.

" _I'll only do this on one condition_ ," he'd told Natsu. " _If you die, I want someone to kill me_."

It wasn't a memory they revisited often.

"Whatever the case," Natsu continued, "it's my job to make sure we don't end up with a bunch of casualties when we're out on assignment. I'm authorized to use whatever force is necessary to prevent accidental loss of life. That includes just picking you up and throwing you out of range. That red tape marks a relatively safe distance, as long as Zeref here isn't trying to kill you and doesn't feel too upset about anything. Memorize that distance, but keep in mind that it's not a guarantee, so you still have to be careful."

He paused to let them digest this then added, "Also, all information about my partner has to be kept confidential. Is that clear?"

The students murmured their agreement. It was pretty obvious why they shouldn't spread this information around. Talk about a Quirk that villains could take advantage of to wreak havoc. They wouldn't even need Zeref's cooperation if it was enough to provoke the right emotions.

Izuku shifted on his seat, feeling slightly uneasy. A Quirk like that... It just didn't seem like the kind of ability you called in to help capture someone. It also wasn't the kind of Quirk that you risked having around if you didn't intend to use it.

"Anyone else have questions about what we've said so far?" Natsu asked.

His sharp, green eyes scanned each of their faces, and Izuku had the feeling he was carefully gauging their reactions and expressions. Despite his outward good humor, there was something steely about the Dragon Slayer that told Izuku he would be a frightening enemy—not because he was a formidable fighter, Izuku had met several of those, but because he would be a vicious one. In contrast, although Zeref's abilities were terrifying, there was something just a little sad, calm, and resigned about him that Izuku suspected would make him efficient in a battle but merciful.

When none of the students voiced any further questions, Natsu shrugged and Zeref pulled a stack of folders from the book bag at his feet.

"If you haven't seen a copy of the villain's letter yet, please look it over. He or she might have left clues in the text, and it would be best to familiarize yourselves with it before you start conducting interviews. This is what we know about the situation so far..."

When the five students left an hour later, it was with a list of tasks that they were to distribute amongst themselves with strict instructions to always work in teams of at least two. They lingered outside the school's front doors, the early morning peace feeling surreal after the seriousness of the conversation they had just had.

"They're kind of intimidating, aren't they?" Asui observed, the first to break the silence.

"Yeah." Izuku bit his lip. "Do you think... that they're here to kill him? The villain, I mean."

The others fell silent, all of them thinking about a sad little clump of withered leaves in a small, clay pot. None of them were sure how to feel about that. Yes, whoever this villain was, he was a murderer—a serial killer, no less—but all of them were here because they wanted to be heroes. Even if you were saving lives, there was nothing heroic about killing. At the same time, deaths did occasionally happen during fights between heroes and villains. Was that really so different? Did they just want to believe that it was different? Where did you draw the line?

"We should just focus on gathering information on the missing students," Todoroki said at last, his calm and serious voice cutting through the uncomfortable feeling that had settled over them. "Finding those students is our top priority."

The other students agreed, and they set about dividing up the list of people they had to see.

.

"They were uncomfortable," Zeref said after the last student had vanished from the cafeteria.

"You can't expect them to just be okay with the idea," Natsu pointed out. "Hell, you're not all that okay with it yourself most of the time, so it's really no surprise. It shows that they're good kids."

"I feel bad for this shrub," Zeref said, examining the wilted, brown remains mournfully. "Do we know anyone with a plant type Quirk who might be able to rejuvenate it?"

"Not that I'm aware of, sorry." Natsu shook his head. "I just felt like they had to see it at least once, so they could get it into their heads that your Quirk isn't to be treated lightly. They're students at one of the best hero schools in the world. It's easy to be overconfident. But they wouldn't get second chances with a Quirk like yours if they mess up. They had to realize that."

Zeref nodded. Natsu was right of course, and a little shrub was better than, say, a mouse or other small animal. That would have made him feel ill.

During his early years at the Facility when they'd been trying to figure out the exact nature and extent of his Quirk, small rodents had been the primary victims.

Natsu's cell phone rang once, and he glanced at the new text message.

"I'm going to check out the abandoned flower shop where that first kid was found and the store where the fifth student was last seen. They're in the same district, and it looks like the detective assigned to both those cases has time now. She says she'll meet me at the train station. You want to come?"

Zeref hesitated then shook his head. "You don't need me to look at the crime scene. I'll stay here, try to get familiar with being here, and review what we know again. That way, I'll also be available when the children start reporting back with their interviews."

Natsu nodded. "All right. I kind of wanted to be the one to show you around, but Mr. Aizawa could probably give you a better tour than I could."

"I don't mind waiting for you."

Natsu grinned ruefully. "Nah, that's okay. I'm being stupid. Go with Aizawa. The faster you settle in here, the better off we'll all be."

Zeref studied his face covertly for a moment then nodded. "I'll do that then."

They walked together outside, and Zeref lingered in the doorway, watching his partner stride away across the wide expanse of pale brick. At the end of the path, Natsu paused to glance back, his keen eyes picking out the details of his partner's face with ease even from this distance.

He looked relatively relaxed, Natsu decided, and there was a hesitant curiosity in the way he glanced from Natsu to the rest of the campus. That was good. It was a far cry from that first tumultuous year out of the Facility when Zeref had seemed constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown every time they ventured out into the city.

" _I can't do this,_ " he could still remember Zeref saying only a week after moving into their city apartment.

Even now, Natsu could recall every detail of the scene—Zeref sitting on the floor in their bedroom with his back against the side of the bed and his head in his hands. The lights were off, but the curtains were open, affording what, at another time, would have seemed like a spectacular view of a star-spangled night sky. The dark-haired boy had been trembling and in tears, and Natsu had felt incredibly guilty because going to that restaurant for dinner had been his idea. Natsu had been so excited for the two of them to be living together and able to actually get out and about the city. In retrospect, the other boy's stress had probably been building up all week with Natsu dragging him to all those different places, even if they weren't crowded places. The Dragon Slayer had just been too excited to notice. Too excited to step back and think about how overwhelming it must have been for someone who hadn't so much as walked down a city street in ten years.

" _What's wrong with me?" The question was small and quiet and miserable. "I want this. I want to live out here—with you. Why can't I just stop being so nervous?"_

 _Natsu sat down next to him and put an arm around him. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have insisted. There's nothing wrong with you. You've been cooped up indoors for almost a decade. Of course it'll take time to adjust. We just have to do things more slowly."_

 _Zeref didn't appear convinced, but eventually, he stopped shaking._

 _Natsu just held him, and the two of them sat in the dark room until Zeref mumbled, head resting against Natsu's shoulder, "That villain attack on the Facility—before you started visiting me... There were these two research assistants who tried to help me, tried to get me away before the intruders could find me. The two of them had done a lot of work with me when we were trying to figure out the range of my abilities. They were always very thoughtful. I think... that maybe they'd wanted children of their own, except that their jobs at the Facility got in the way."_

 _Zeref shivered. "We were cornered. One of them got caught. The villains tried to use him as a hostage to get me and the other assistant to leave with them. I'll never forget... the way those two looked at each other and then at me before they told me to use my Quirk. They told me that no matter what, I couldn't allow myself to get captured."_

 _He made a strangled, heaving sound like he wanted to retch but had nothing to throw up. Natsu rubbed his back until he was able to breathe normally again, and then gathered him into a hug. The Slayer didn't have to ask what had happened to the two assistants in question. He knew from reading the reports that all but one of the villains had been killed, as had two members of the Facility staff. They were the first human casualties of Zeref's Quirk, the first human lives that he had ever taken, and they would haunt him for the rest of his life. Of course, Natsu had assumed before that it had been an accident—that was how it was reported on record. Now he knew better, and he finally understood why the incident had Zeref so wracked with guilt._

Natsu doubted that that guilt would ever truly go away. His partner had cared for those two people, that was obvious, and they had essentially given their lives for him. Zeref wasn't the kind of person who could ever really forgive himself for that. It was a part of who he was. But at least that guilt and the aftermath of that tragedy no longer consumed him the way it had. Talking about it had probably helped, and Natsu was glad that he was the one his partner had chosen to confide in.

Zeref caught Natsu watching him still, and his brow furrowed in confusion and concern. The Dragon Slayer just grinned and waved a casual goodbye before turning away. The sooner he got this done, the sooner he'd be back.

.

He should have asked Natsu to walk him to Aizawa's office.

Wandering through the large school building was way more stressful than was reasonable. Zeref moved slowly, listening hard for anyone who might be about to turn the corner in front of him. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally walk into someone with a fifty-fifty percent chance that the unlucky individual would drop dead. Classes might be over for the summer, but the campus was far from deserted. A few of the people he stopped to allow past him gave him curious and confused glances, but he had long ago learned how to carry himself so as to minimize the chances of anyone actually approaching him. Looking like he knew where he was going and didn't need or want help worked better in the long run than demanding that people keep their distance.

Halfway down yet another wide, sweeping corridor, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket and made him jump. Pulling out the flat, rectangular device, he glanced at the screen. There was a very, very small number of people who actually had access to his cell phone number, and only one right at this moment who had any reason to send him a text. Sure enough, the message was from Natsu, complaining about the crowded train. Zeref smiled a little and typed a sympathetic response back.

Having a phone was a surprising luxury. He hadn't been allowed one in the Facility—hadn't really needed one either since he hadn't been able to go anywhere.

" _This is... for me?"_

" _Yup, certain people—me, for example—will need to be able to find you. And this way, you'll be able to talk to me whenever you want, even if I'm out on a different assignment. We just have to make sure that we don't say anything that other people can't know about. Nothing about your Quirk."_

Really, this incredible piece of modern communication technology had symbolized a major shift in his life. More than that, it made him feel just that bit less isolated even when he was by himself. He seldom actually called Natsu when his partner was away, but it was comforting to know that he could if he needed to.

Zeref breathed a sigh of relief when the open door of the faculty room finally came into view. He picked up his pace, slowing only when he remembered that there might be other teachers in there. Cautiously, he poked is head around the doorway and scanned the many tables and chairs. He didn't relax again until he spotted Aizawa's unkempt mane of black hair at the desk by the large windows.

"Mr. Aizawa?"

"Hmmm?" The high school teacher glanced up from the papers before him and focused on Zeref. "Did you need something?"

"Well..." The young man glanced away, slightly embarrassed at having interrupted his work for something that seemed so insignificant in comparison. "I was wondering if you had time to show me around the campus."

"Where's Natsu? I thought he'd want to do that himself."

"He had to go see one of the crime scenes. It was quite difficult to schedule a time that worked for the investigating detective."

"I see."

"But if you're busy, that's okay too," Zeref added quickly. "I'm not in a hurry. I can wait for Natsu to get back."

If it had been anyone else asking, Aizawa would probably have refused. He really was very busy with all the rearrangements that had to be made in regards to his original summer plans for his class. But this was Zeref asking, and Aizawa's Quirk-canceling ability—despite its limited duration—made him one of the best choices of tour guide in case anyone they bumped into needed a few extra seconds to run away.

Besides, there was a hopefulness in Zeref's dark eyes that made it difficult for Aizawa to say no. "Hopeful" wasn't a word you could often use to describe the boy. It was a nice change.

"I need to make a few phone calls," Aizawa said finally. "It shouldn't take long. You're free to wait here or go back to your room. I can come find you when I'm done."

Zeref gave him a very small smile, which was the best anyone who was not Natsu ever got from him these days. "That's fine. I can wait here."

.

"You're looking for Jenny?" The old woman sighed and shook her head, a few thin curls of gray hair that had escaped the bun atop her head bouncing against her cheeks. "You haven't heard? She's been missing for awhile now, poor girl."

"Yeah, we know," Izuku said uncomfortably.

This was only the second person on their list, and Shinso wasn't exactly helping. The other boy seemed hesitant to actually speak with any of them—understandable, considering how nervous peopled tended to be when they found out that his Quirk might allow him to manipulate them through speech. Still...

"We want to see if we can help find her," Izuku said, meeting the woman's gaze squarely. "Can you tell us anything about her that might help? Like if she was acting strange or had any visitors at the time."

"Visitors?" The elderly neighbor frowned, glancing towards the door just down the open hallway from her own front door. "We've been neighbors for awhile now, and I don't think there was anything that unusual about her behavior at the time. Her parents live in Tokyo, so she's here by herself. She often has friends over though, so it's not like she was often alone."

"Did you two know each other well?" Izuku asked.

The old woman smiled at that, the corners of her eyes crinkling up. "I would like to think we did. She was such a polite and cheerful girl. Always came over to help me with my flowers when I was having trouble. I love my house plants, but I don't mind telling you, caring for them can be tricky for me sometimes."

Beside Izuku, Shinso glanced down the hall as well at the pot by the neighboring apartment door. It looked healthy.

"Are you the one who's been caring for that one?" Izuku asked, having noted the direction of his gaze.

"I am. It seemed like the least I could do." The smile faded from the woman's face. "I hope you find her, and I hope she's all right. Maybe you should consider talking to the assistant at the flower shop on the corner. She went there a lot."

"We will," Izuku said. "Thank you very much for talking with us. Please call us if you think of anything else, even if it doesn't seem important."

The two students bid her farewell and started towards the next door down the hall away from Jenny's own apartment. So far, they hadn't really learned anything that the police hadn't already found, and this remained true even an hour later after they'd interviewed everyone on the floor. Honestly, Izuku wasn't entirely sure what they were supposed to be looking for in the first place.

"Maybe we should go back to the shuttle platform," Shinso suggested after the last door had been slammed in their faces by a grouchy, middle-aged man who was tired of explaining that he'd never even seen the high school student who lived down the hall from him.

Izuku agreed. "Maybe, but we should probably still stop by the flower shop first, since we're here already."

"Right."

An awkward silence resettled between them as they made their way down the stairwell.

Finally, when they reached the ground floor, Izuku cleared his throat and said, "You know, if you don't want to do the interviews, maybe you should take notes about the area, things you see, and that sort of thing. I think... you make people more nervous when you just stand there and watch them."

"Maybe," the other boy said shortly. His short, purplish gray hair made his face appear somehow even more solemn.

Izuku sighed, tucking his notebook under his arm. "I just don't know if we're going about this the right way. I never thought I'd be doing this kind of detective work."

Shinso glanced sidelong at him, hesitated, then shrugged. "I suppose we'll know when we head back for that evening meeting. This is only the first day."

"The fifth actually," Izuku corrected him. "This is the fifth day after that letter was delivered to the police station. That only gives us sixteen more days. We don't really have time to make mistakes."

Sixteen days to stop three missing students like themselves from being murdered. He found it hard to sleep every time he thought about it. Thank god the digital clock in his room didn't tick.

"I guess I'm wondering if I was really a good choice for this," Izuku admitted, mostly thinking aloud to himself. "I mean, your Quirk would be really good for dealing with a villain who has abilities we don't know a lot about without putting a lot of civilians in danger. Todoroki has a lot of firepower, and he's pretty levelheaded most of the time. I guess you could say he's really well rounded. I heard that they're having Kyoka work with someone on learning to use her super hearing to detect lies through cues like tone and heartbeat. And of course, Asui would be great at climbing about unusual places to look for things, and she's pretty calm in a crisis. Compared to all that, my Quirk just seems kind of unreliable since I'm still working on controlling it."

He wasn't really expecting the other high school first-year to respond, so he jumped a little when he did.

"That Dragon Slayer guy did say that we were chosen because the teachers thought we'd get the most out of doing this." Shinso paused then added more quietly, "I was surprised when Mr. Aizawa called me to ask if I was interested in taking part. Since I'm not in the hero course."

Not quite as much of a sore spot as it had been, by the sound of it. Izuku was glad for him. The two of them had much more in common than Shinso knew. Izuku understood all too well the frustration of wanting to be a pro hero but not having the "right" powers.

"And you said yes," Izuku said, stating the obvious and wondering if Shinso would say more.

"Well, it seemed like a good opportunity. The chances are high that I'll end up doing a lot of more undercover, investigative work as a hero. Sure, it's not what typical pro heroes do, but then my Quirk's not that typical. I have to accept that. Aizawa and those two newcomers... they said I should use this chance to hone my observational and critical thinking skills, and I'm working with someone from tech support to make a voice alteration device for me."

"That's a great idea," Izuku exclaimed, his mind immediately jumping to make connections after years of studying the strengths and weaknesses of different Quirks. "Since you appeared on TV during the Sports Festival, a lot of people probably know how your Quirk works now and maybe even what you sound like. If you can change that at will, it'll be easier for you to catch villains by surprise and get the most out of your abilities."

Izuku stopped at the expression on the other boy's face, somewhere between amusement and bafflement.

"Uh, sorry for rambling. I think about these things a lot."

Clearly.

"Whatever." Shinso shrugged. "I don't understand you, but it sounds pretty obvious why you were picked for this."

"Um, thanks, I think..."

Izuku knew he was good at analyzing Quirks and how they interacted with different scenarios, but he hadn't really thought of that as a possible reason for his selection. He _had_ to be smart if he wanted to compete with students like Todoroki and Bakugo who had so much natural talent for hero work. It hadn't occurred to him that his selection might have had nothing to do with his Quirk at all. It made sense though, and he really should have thought of it before.

"I see the flower shop," Shinso said, breaking through his companion's whirlwind of thoughts. "Good thing it's open."

The Morning Dew Flower Shop was a quaint little place on the street corner, boasting huge glass windows and several colorful displays of fresh flowers, some in bouquets and others in clay or plastic pots and trays. Shinso took his fellow student's advice and moved away to examine the premises, pausing in the window to see what could be seen of the street outside from there. The only employee in the store at the moment was a boy only slightly older than Izuku—probably a part-time summer hire.

The boy grinned when Izuku approached him, amusement making his brown eyes sparkle. "Need suggestions choosing flowers for someone special?"

Izuku blushed, an image of a girl with shoulder-length, auburn hair flashing through his mind. "Er, no. Actually, we wanted to talk to someone about Jenny Mikaka. We heard that she used to come here a lot."

The amusement instantly dropped from the boy's face, and he worried at his lower lip. "I know her. I help out here a lot because my parents own the store."

So much for the summer hire assumption. He had to be careful about just guessing at these things.

"Are you friends of hers or something?"

"We don't actually know her," Izuku said, not wanting to give the boy the wrong impression. "But we're both hero program students, and we're helping to search for her."

"Oh." The boy thought for a moment, then said, "I guess it's okay if I talk to you then, although I don't know how much help I'll be. The police already talked to my parents."

"Maybe you could just tell me a bit about what kind of person she was. Did she mention anything around the time of her disappearance that she hadn't talked about before?"

"Anything new? Um, well... She bought her first orchid from our shop, but that's probably not what you're interested in..."

"No," Izuku sighed, "probably not, but you never know. The truth is we really don't know what's important yet. Did she often get new flowers?"

"Depends on what you call often. She said once that she always liked to keep plants around her apartment because they made her feel less alone when she didn't have friends or relatives staying with her. I think her father might work in a greenhouse, and her mother teaches plant biology or something at some university. Anyway, she bought different plants sometimes for some variety, you know? Different flowers—even a cactus once. She loved learning about the different species and how best to care for them, and she'd always get so excited about plants she'd never seen before."

"Was this the only flower shop she visited?"

"No way, we've got plenty of flower shops in Hosu. She liked our shop, but she went to other ones too. This new nursery opened up not that long ago, and she wouldn't stop talking about it for weeks. Kiki's Nursery. They carry all kinds of exotic plants, even genetically engineered ones like true blue roses. It's been cutting into our profits, but we don't think it'll be a problem once the novelty wears off."

"Were you and Jenny close?" Izuku asked, then added hastily, "Sorry if that's too personal. We're really just trying to learn everything we can."

The boy's face had gone beat red, but he cleared his throat and answered, "No, I don't mind. I... liked her a lot. I was... going to ask her to the summer festival we have coming up, but..."

He looked away and shrugged. They knew the rest.

Izuku felt bad for bringing it up, but he mustered a determined smile. "Don't worry, we'll find her. You'll still be able to ask her."

For the first time since Izuku had started this conversation, the smile made it back onto the shop assistant's face, albeit weak and watered down.

"Thanks. Good luck. Let me know if there's any way I can help." The boy hesitated, his gaze growing distant, then added, "I should have walked her to the platform that day. She came by here that day before she disappeared, you know. I remember thinking that I should offer to go with her because we had this crazy fog that morning. And when I say crazy, I mean crazy. You could barely see one side of the street from the other. But I talked myself out of it... and she left."

In his mind, Izuku could almost see Jenny Mikaka with her long, black hair and wide smile, turning to wave at the shop assistant before her steps took her too deep into the fog for him to see her.

The boy plucked a stray flower petal from his shop apron and sighed. "I don't want that to be my last memory of her."

.

The convenience store was the largest in the area, boasting three whole floors full of everything a person could need to cover his or her daily necessities.

"The last time anyone saw Sora Asagi, she was here making a purchase. From what was recorded by the store cameras, she bought milk bread, lemon a pocket sketchbook, and a new set of pens."

"She was the last one to disappear, right/"

"That's right."

Detective Keiko Shinra sighed and lowered her clipboard. Occasionally, the people passing by on the sidewalk cast a curious glance her way, noting her police uniform. But these days, police just weren't that interesting—even to criminals. Most people just didn't take the police very seriously, simply because they adhered to a strict policy prohibiting the use of Quirks on the job. Heroes were the ones who got all the limelight, the ones who got the credit for catching villains and stopping crime.

Of course Keiko believed in the value of her work. She was usually the first one to jump to its defense, to remind people of all the important things that the police did behind the scenes so that the heroes could focus on what they did in the spotlight. But today was one of those days when she wondered why she bothered. It wasn't like the public really appreciated the fact that she was out here hard at work investigating a kidnapping.

"You okay?"

Pale gray orbs focused on the young man standing next to her. Disturbingly sharp, green eyes met her gaze, and she fought down the uncomfortable feeling that he could see right through her.

"I just have a lot on my mind today," she said stiffly. "It's really none of your business."

"Hey, no need to get all prickly. I was just asking because you're obviously distracted, and it kind of is my business if you're not going to be able to focus." The Dragon Slayer shoved his hands into the pockets of his black jacket and inclined his head towards the bustling street. "You're the detective here. If you need a break before you go over the details with me, all you have to do is say so."

Keiko exhaled slowly and shook her head, her white-blond braid shifting against the nape of her neck. "I'm sorry. I'm the one who keeps rescheduling this. It's just that I haven't been getting much sleep. There's been a spike in crime rates since the Hero Killer incident, and on top of all that, my sister's class got attacked on a field trip last week. She only just got out of the hospital yesterday, and now she won't leave the apartment."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

The young man sounded like he meant it.

"Is there anyone at home with her?"

"Um, yes, there is. She didn't want to go back to stay with our parents, so Mother's taking a few days off work to stay at my place with her."

He nodded. "That's good."

Keiko eyed him curiously. This was the first time she had ever worked with the Fire Dragon Slayer, although she'd heard stories from Inspector Koji Ishikawa. The older detective had been assigned to work with Natsu and his mysterious partner on a serial bombing case last spring. Technically, Koji wasn't supposed to discuss the case with anyone, but now Keiko was slated to work with the same unusual pair and he'd probably figured that that made divulging information to her was okay.

Natsu caught her scrutinizing him and raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"You aren't... quite what I expected."

Natsu snorted. "Let me guess, Koji Ishikawa? I believe he's usually your partner, right?"

She flushed. Somehow, she thought he knew that Koji would not have had nice things to say about them.

"I think we scared him," the Dragon Slayer said with a wry grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "That was a bad one. We're not usually that unpleasant to work with. So which way did this Sora girl go?"

Keiko hesitated then glanced at her clipboard—an unnecessary motion, she'd memorized all the information long ago—and led the way down the sidewalk.

"She turned right after leaving the shop, so we think she intended to cut through the park on her way to her friend's apartment building. They'd made plans to study together, but Sora never showed up."

Natsu nodded, surveying the small, public park and the apartment complex beyond. The park had a children's playground and quite a large number of trees.

"What was her Quirk again?" he asked.

"She could reinforce paper—make it as hard as steel," Keiko said. "That way, she could use a piece of paper to cut things or to make a shield."

"Paper, huh? Could she maybe change the color?"

Keiko opened her mouth, shut it again, then said, "I don't know. Why?"

Instead of answering, Natsu jumped and swung himself up into the branches of one of the park trees. Within seconds, he was back with a scrap of green paper fluttering from his hands. "Sorry, I tore it when I dug it out of the tree. Some of it's still embedded in the trunk."

Even so, he'd managed to retrieve enough of the paper that they could see the perforated edge, identifying it as a page torn out of some kind of notebook or sketchbook.

"It was in the tree?" Keiko asked, taking the scrap and examining it. "But the color, if it had been white, we would have been able to find it much more easily."

"My guess is that she was fighting, and she changed the color so that it was harder for her opponent to see. I don't smell any blood on it though, so she probably missed—with this one at least."

A careful search of the area uncovered several more pieces of paper, all in shades of brown or green that made them blend into the landscape and all of them free of blood.

Keiko squinted, picturing the scene in her mind.

"Assuming Sora was coming from the convenience store and got attacked here, these would imply that she probably ran..." She pivoted on the spot, envisioning the trail of papers, "That way. It's just old storehouses that way."

"Makes sense. She probably didn't want to get anyone else caught in the battle."

Keiko bit her lip at that. He was right. After all, Sora had wanted to be a hero, and by all accounts, she'd been a brave girl. If she had just run the other way—back to the crowded shopping district... Maybe she would now be safely at home. As far as Keiko was concerned, high school was way too young for anyone to be thinking about fighting crime no matter how powerful a person's Quirk was.

"If I remember correctly," she said, thinking out loud, "there were two reported cases of vandalism from that area at around the same time Sora disappeared. I wonder if they might be related. I can get Koji to look up the details for me while we go take a look for ourselves."

"Yeah, sure."

While the detective made her phone call, Natsu sighed and took out his own phone to let his partner know that he wouldn't be back for lunch after all, and possibly not dinner either. He thought about telling Zeref not to wait up, but ended up deleting that part of the message before it got sent. There was no point when he knew Zeref would wait up for him anyway.

.

Zeref finished jotting down notes on the giant sheet of white poster paper he had tacked up on one wall of the makeshift private dining room and stood back to survey the elaborate network of timelines he'd created with the help of the five students gathered at the far end of the long, rectangular table. Details that he'd already gotten from the police reports were written in black while the new notes were in blue, red, and green for Sora Asagi, Yusuke Fujiwara, and Jenny Mikaka respectively. He had a purple pen in reserve for the two students who had already been killed, but he wouldn't need that until Natsu got back—which, by the looks of it, would be much later than either of them had expected.

"Good work," he said, pleased by all the new, colorful notations.

They really _had_ done good work. They now had a great deal more information to work with, and a lot of it matched up with Natsu and Zeref's initial theories.

"All those mentions of heavy fog are new. From all these references and the fact that such weather phenomena were not typical for those areas at those times, I think we can be reasonably certain that the fog was caused by a Quirk," he said, sitting back down at the table and looking across the polished expanse of dark wood. "We also strongly believe that this villain—or villains, we don't actually know for certain that there is only one person—has access to a plant related Quirk, one that involves being able to poison someone."

Five pairs of eyes swiveled to the notes on the wall. Jenny had frequented flower shops and nurseries. Neither of the other two missing students had had any clear connections with botanists, flower shops, or anything of the sort, but...

"Wasn't one of the bodies found in a flower shop?" Todoroki asked.

"The first, yes. We think that that death occurred before the villain began his or her plans for the other four kidnappings. The time frames would support that. We should start going through Quirk registrations and putting together a list of possible suspects, although it's entirely possible that the villain's Quirk was never officially recorded. Even though it's mandatory these days to register Quirks when they manifest, individuals still slip between the cracks. It's also not unusual for there to be mistakes where what a person believed his or her Quirk to be turned out to be in error. We need to take that into account."

"Shouldn't we also be thinking about where the hostages might be kept?" Asui asked, raising her hand.

Zeref nodded. "That leads us to the other thing I wanted to discuss before you leave today. Have you had a chance to think about that challenge letter?"

They spent the next hour going over the text in question line by line, brainstorming possible interpretations. It felt a tiny bit strange that one member of their discussion had to sit so far away, but since Zeref himself never pointed it out or drew attention to the fact, they gradually grew used to the setup,. By the time Zeref declared that they should really call it a day, their heads were spinning with random lines of imagery and bits of seemingly mad rambling. As tired as they all were by then, even though all the students felt a pressing sense of urgency towards the situation, further discussion would only continue to go around in fruitless circles.

"Go home and get some sleep," Zeref advised them. "We'll be starting early again tomorrow. Feel free to bring your own breakfast with you if you'd prefer. If not, the kitchens will have something."

Izuku lingered in the doorway after his classmates had left, talking quietly among themselves as they moved away down the corridor. They paused at the corner when they noticed that the green-haired boy hadn't followed them, but Izuku waved them on.

"You should go with them," Zeref said from the other side of the room. "You aren't supposed to walk home by yourself. It's not safe, and I can't go with you."

"I'll call my parents or find a teacher to walk me," Izuku assured him. "I just... kind of wanted to ask you some things."

Zeref finished typing the last of his notes and shut the slim, silver laptop on the table before him. He didn't say anything, but there was a listening tilt to his head that encouraged Izuku to continue.

"Do you have any other information on the Quirks of the five students who disappeared? I've only been able to find basic descriptions. I was wondering if they tended to use them in particular ways, if they preferred certain kinds of fighting styles, what kind of hero work they were training for, and that sort of thing. We might be able to figure some things out about the villains that way. Well, unless they were all taken by surprise I suppose, although since there were five of them, that doesn't seem very likely."

Zeref considered him thoughtfully. "We have some additional details, but not a great deal. You could call their schools tomorrow and let us know what you find out. And you're right. We've just discovered that at least one of the abducted students put up quite a fight before she was taken. Natsu is looking into that now, so we'll know more tomorrow. With any luck, either the culprit or the victim will have left a trail that we can follow."

Izuku hesitated, but his curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "Your Quirk, could you tell me more about exactly how it works?"

Zeref paused in the motion of packing up his laptop in a black and white backpack. "Why?"

"Well, I guess I'm curious. Since we'll be working together."

The young man studied him for a long moment, his dark eyes unreadable.

Izuku shifted his weight from foot to foot and fidgeted with the strap of his own backpack. The many notebooks crammed into it weighed heavily on his shoulder. He opened his mouth to retract his question, but Zeref chose that moment to answer.

"Like we said before, I can kill any living thing that comes within twenty meters of me—farther if I really try. We've found that I can also shape the mist to a limited extent—into a sphere, for instance, or a sword. These objects have no real substance, so I can't physically block an attack with them. However, they give the fog more... weight, so that I can throw it and target specific opponents more accurately from a distance. It also concentrates the effects of my Quirk and is extremely effective on things animated by or created using the power of Quirks—such as the copies of himself that Ectoplasm creates. It can sometimes even affect non-living things—to weaken and shatter metal, for example. Controlling my Quirk that way is extremely taxing on the mind, however, and overdoing it can cause relapses where I can't contain my powers at all. As you can imagine, we try to avoid that. If I am working with a Dragon Slayer, I can cloak him or her with my Quirk as a defensive or offensive measure depending on the circumstance." Zeref paused to let him digest all this information then added, "Although generally, Natsu is the only one who can work really effectively with me that way."

"Huh? Why's that?"

Zeref's expression was blank when he replied, "Well, to make use of my abilities one hundred percent, you have to be ready for your opponent's death to be the outcome of the battle. If I am cloaking them, every time a Dragon Slayer throws a punch, he does so knowing that his opponent will most likely die if he makes contact. Of course, this makes my Quirk an excellent defense. But you can't win by never attacking, and you can't afford to hold back when you're trying to save lives."

The seriousness in the young man's large, dark eyes was slightly unsettling.

"I also heal relatively quickly from injuries, and my aging seems to have slowed. We theorize that there may be some "life" aspects to my Quirk as well, but if there are, we haven't figured them out. I suppose I could just look young for my age. It might have nothing to do with Quirks at all."

"That's pretty incredible," Izuku said. "I'm... not sure what I think of how you do things though. Honestly, I don't think I really approve."

Realizing what he'd just spoken aloud, he hastened to add, "I don't mean that I think you're bad guys or anything. I'm sure you have your reasons, but it's a bit hard to think about right now. Still... I guess it's lucky that it was someone like you who got that Quirk."

"Lucky?" Zeref repeated, surprised.

"Yeah, I mean, I can only imagine how much damage a villain could do with powers like that."

"Another reason I'm not allowed outside without a bodyguard," Zeref said wryly. "But yes, I see your point."

"Do you think your lifespan will be different? I've heard of Quirks that make people stay young."

The corners of Zeref's mouth tugged downward in a frown. "I hope not."

The mood in the room changed, and the dark-haired young man seemed to withdraw into himself.

"You should leave now," he said quietly.

"Oh, um, okay." Izuku stepped back, wary of the way the shadows beneath Zeref's feet seemed to shift. "I'm sorry if I said anything to upset you. I didn't mean—"

"It's all right," Zeref interrupted him, his voice sounding just a little bit strangled. "Now, please. And don't forget to find someone to accompany you."

Izuku left.

After the boy's footsteps had faded down the hall, Zeref zipped his backpack, flinching at how loud it sounded in the empty silence of the room. Everything around him seemed too clear, too sharp, and yet at the same time too far away. It all looked so unfamiliar all of a sudden, like he hadn't eaten dinner there just yesterday and held a meeting there this evening. Did that even make sense?

He wanted to go home.

 _You're being ridiculous_ , he told himself. _This reaction is irrational_.

It didn't help.

He picked up his backpack and hurried back to their temporary apartment, fighting down the intense dread that clawed at his throat and threatened to freeze the air around him.

He didn't want to live a minute longer than Natsu did. The mere thought of it all but paralyzed him with panicked terror. It was so hard to breathe. He had to struggle to get enough air into his lungs. His fingers felt numb and he set his backpack carefully on the coffee table before he forgot about it and dropped it. It was getting dark even though the lights were on. Zeref felt his way unsteadily through the black fog until he found the corner of the room that didn't have a fake plant occupying it. Then he sank down with his back against the wall and tried to focus on just breathing.

.

Izuku ended the call after speaking to his parents and lowered the phone from his ear, glancing at the bright, rectangular screen. It had been years since his parents had picked him up from school. It felt strange, but at the same time, he found rather suddenly that he wanted to see them. So much of his time these days was taken up by school, training, and research as he prepared for his dream career. Maybe that was normal for kids his age, but with the school building uncharacteristically quiet around him and the sky outside already pitch black, he felt quite suddenly the lack of that time he could have spent with his family.

Standing just inside the front doors, Izuku looked through the glass at the wide walkway and the street beyond. The way his conversation with Zeref had ended had left him unsettled. For a moment there, the young man had looked so lost that Izuku had found himself wondering if he should ask if the guy was okay.

Izuku wondered what Zeref's life had been like. With a Quirk like that...

It was bizarre sometimes, how different people could be, even in a society where Quirks made extreme differences the norm. Izuku had spent most of his life wishing he had a Quirk, wishing he had powers so that he could be a hero like All Might—a hero who could smile through anything and inspire hope and courage in everyone. Being one of that small percentage of people these days who turned out to be Quirk-less had been such an incredible disappointment.

He'd never thought before about how having a powerful Quirk could be a bad thing.

No Quirk had to be better than a Quirk you couldn't completely control that might kill almost everyone you cared about who accidentally wandered too close at the wrong time. Forget becoming a pro hero. You'd be lucky not to get cast as a villain.

Once again, the high school student reflected on how fortunate he had been to meet All Might. He pursued his dream of becoming a pro with everything he had, and his efforts had paid off. For some people, even everyday life could be a challenge.

Shaking his head, Izuku scrolled through the contacts on his phone until he found one of the two new entries and dialed it.

Natsu answered on the third ring. "What's up?"

"I'm really sorry," Izuku said. "We were just talking, and I'm not sure what happened but—I think I might have upset him."

Izuku half expected to be yelled at. He'd seen how protective Natsu was of his partner. Instead, there was a long moment of silence from the other end of the line, then Natsu said, "Can you tell me exactly what you said? Word for Word."

Izuku did so, recounting everything he could remember. When he was finished, Natsu thanked him, asked him a few other seemingly irrelevant questions, bid him goodnight, and hung up.

.

Natsu was unsurprised to finally arrive back at their current residence to find shadowy fog seeping through the walls. It was so dark on the other side of the door that he had to use his nose to find his partner instead of his eyes. Zeref was huddled in the far corner of the living room, his back pressed against the wall and his knees drawn up to his chest. It was a habit left over from when Zeref's powers had first begun to act up. It stopped people from approaching him from at least two sides. It was also what he did when the world felt too vast and the ground beneath his feet too unstable—when he felt like he was drowning.

"Hey," Natsu said, crouching down in front of him.

For a moment, he was afraid that the other boy was too far lost in his own mind to hear him. But a long second later, Zeref stirred and lifted his head a fraction.

"Na... tsu?"

"Who else? You know, it doesn't pay to get so caught up in freaking yourself out about the future that you can't even live properly in the present. Especially futures that probably won't ever happen."

Zeref wasn't surprised that Natsu knew what had happened. It was Natsu's business to know how he was feeling and what he was thinking—not only as his partner, but also as the person the government had very grudgingly entrusted with Zeref and his Quirk.

"But how can you be sure?"

Zeref lifted his eyes towards Natsu's voice, although he couldn't see him through the fog of his own Quirk. Desperate, he reached out, not relaxing until a familiar hand grabbed his. Natsu tugged him away from the wall and gathered him into his arms. Zeref closed his eyes and turned his face into his partner's chest, solid and real even though Zeref couldn't see him.

"Do you remember what I said the first time I kissed you?" Natsu asked after a moment.

Zeref did remember. He had been surprised but not shocked—surprised because he'd convinced himself that he'd only imagined the intensity in the looks his friend had been giving him, but not shocked because he'd had wistful thoughts of Natsu doing just that. Zeref had harbored fond feelings for the Dragon Slayer for awhile, but he'd fully intended to keep those feelings to himself for the rest of his life. He already got so much of Natsu's time and attention. It didn't seem fair of him to want his love too.

"What part?" Zeref mumbled into Natsu's shirt. "We said a lot of things."

Because of course the first thing Zeref had done was try to persuade him to change his mind—albeit not with much vigor. The Dragon Slayer tended to be a bit impulsive, so he'd felt obligated to make sure that Natsu had actually thought things through.

" _I don't think I'd be a good choice of partner for anyone," Zeref said a moment after Natsu pulled away. "We wouldn't be able to just go out to eat or visit the movies like most other couples."_

 _Natsu quirked an eyebrow. "I kiss you, and that's the first thing you have to say to me? Is this your way of turning me down?"_

" _No, I... I'm telling you that you should think carefully before making any decisions because it might be awkward in the future if you change your mind."_

" _Does that mean you'd say yes if I asked?"_

" _Are you... sure you don't want to look for someone more suitable?"_

" _You're avoiding my question."_

 _Now, Zeref was starting to grow distressed. Natsu was sorry for pushing him, but he had to know the answer because Natsu wasn't willing to just let the idea go now that it had occurred to him. They had to sort this out. Zeref had to know that this wasn't a spur of the moment decision._

" _What if something goes wrong and you leave me? I don't think—I couldn't—I can't—"_

 _Natsu silenced him with another kiss. Zeref's surprise caused the beginning traces of black fog to vanish like harmless smoke._

" _I won't let you end up alone no matter what happens. I promised, remember?"_

 _Natsu waited for the other boy to nod in mute acknowledgement before continuing. "Sure, we might have to live a little differently from other people. That doesn't mean we can't have fun or be happy. Whether or not we're happy depends on us. We'll make the most of what we have, and if there are problems, we'll deal with them. We're going to be happy."_

The memory replayed through his mind, and Zeref murmured, "You said... that we were going to be happy. And that everything was going to work out."

And from Natsu, those words hadn't been naivety or even optimism. By that point, he'd become a lot less optimistic and a lot more determined. No, those words had been a promise. A defiant declaration against all the things in the world that were unfair or inevitable, all the things that people could not control. They weren't a prediction. They were a goal, one that the two of them could strive for.

"That's right," Natsu said. "The future doesn't just happen to us after all. We make it. It's not always easy, but it's not impossible either."

Slowly, Zeref nodded. It was something he had to constantly remind himself, even though they'd done so much in the last three years to prove it true—so many things he'd thought impossible when the doors of that white van had closed between him and the world thirteen years ago.

"I'm all right now," Zeref said finally, his eyes still closed. "But please don't let go."

He could feel as well as hear Natsu chuckle, and he savored the sensation.

"I wasn't planning to," the Dragon Slayer said, shifting his hold on Zeref so he could take out his phone. "Just let me see if I can find anyone to get us something to eat. I've been busy all evening, and something tells me you didn't bother to have dinner."

"I'm not really hungry."

"At least drink some soup."

Zeref hesitated, unsure if his stomach approved of this idea, then gave in. "All right."

He could probably handle a bit of soup—if only to stop Natsu from worrying about him.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

 **AN** : Uh oh, I might be more interested in what happened in their lives over the past three years...

I originally wanted to post the next chapter of Firelight, but I'm still not done with it, so I ended up going with this chapter instead. I was a little hesitant about it though, since I'm still not sure I'm entirely happy with all the sections. Honestly, the Hero Academia characters are a little tough for me. But I've already revised it several times, and if I kept putting it off, it was never going to happen.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and Happy New Year:)

.


	5. First Interlude

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

 **CHAPTER WARNINGS: mild referenced/implied sexual content**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **5\. First Interlude**

" _If you merely live within the dreams of other people, it's no different from being dead."_

 _~ Major Motoko Kusanagi, Ghost in the Shell, episode 12_

Back in their own bedroom at home, one entire wall was covered in photographs. It was a tradition they had started, taking pictures of the things they did together and the places they visited then tacking them up in easy view—in part to prove that they had done those things and to remind Zeref that he wasn't dreaming. He didn't really need those photographs anymore to feel secure in his new reality, but he liked the tradition and insisted that they keep it up.

Now, sharing a quiet dinner in the small office turned sitting room, Zeref found himself thinking back on that wall of pictures. So much had happened since they had moved into their current home, but the memory of that first day was still vivid in his mind, fraught with emotions that he hadn't known quite how to express...

" _I suppose... that we should feel fortunate. Most people would never be able to afford to live in a place like this."_

 _Zeref sat on the carpet beside the vast window that formed one wall of their new living room, still dressed in a slightly oversized, black coat that made him look strangely fragile. He wasn't crying anymore though, for which Natsu was grateful._

" _You don't sound very convinced," the Dragon Slayer said._

" _Hmmm. I don't feel_ un _fortunate. I think I'll like living here, but... maybe it's just different when it's not something you chose for yourself."_

 _When you knew it was somewhere from which you couldn't freely come and go._

 _They had moved in before dawn, arriving in their new apartment on the top level of the skyscraper while the sky was still dark. Aizawa had accompanied them in the car from the Facility, but he'd left them at the apartment building's front doors with just a statement that he'd drop by in a day or two to make sure they'd settled in all right. Because of that, it was only Natsu and Zeref who had stepped through the rather heavily reinforced door into the place that would be their home from then on._

 _Natsu moved to sit with him on the carpeted floor, looking out at the sprawling cityscape, glittering now under the late morning sun._

" _It looks rather far away, doesn't it?" Zeref said, musing aloud._

 _Natsu said nothing. Honestly, he wasn't sure what he_ could _say._

 _After awhile, Zeref asked, "Can we... sleep out here tonight?"_

" _Sure, if that's what you want."_

 _There were windows in the bedroom too, of course, but they were nowhere near this impressive._

 _They still had to finish unpacking what belongings they'd brought with them and Natsu's stomach was telling him that it was time they start discussing lunch, but he made no move to stand up. This was the start of a new life for both of them, and he understood that, for Zeref especially, it was all a lot to digest. They could afford to take their time._

...That first year had been hard. Much harder than either of them would admit to anyone other than each other.

It wasn't just the stress of suddenly being dropped back into a society Zeref had hardly bothered to pay attention to in years, although that was doubtless a major part of it. After their first black-folder case, Zeref had gone home and stood under the spray of the shower until Natsu came in to make sure he wasn't trying to drown himself...

" _You want dinner?"_

 _Zeref shook his head, his eyes still closed. Water cascaded from his dark hair and down his face._

 _Natsu didn't insist. Today wasn't a day for insisting such things._

 _One of the advantages of living in an apartment building rather than a house was that they were unlikely to run out of hot water._

" _I hated him for what he'd done. He deserved to die. I don't regret killing him, and I'd do it again. But... I hate myself too."_

 _There was a lot Natsu wanted to say, but somehow, his own thoughts were all jumbled together. Nothing seemed quite as clear cut as it had been when he was still a student._

" _I have no sympathy for murderers and their kind," Zeref continued, half to himself and half to Natsu. "I suppose that makes me a little hypocritical."_

 _Without a word, Natsu slid the shower door aside, reached in to shut off the water, then threw a towel over his partner's shoulders. Zeref let the Dragon Slayer pull him out of the stall and use a second towel to dry his hair. After a moment, Zeref slowly began to help. He didn't want to catch a cold. The last time he'd caught a cold, he'd had to deal with it alone and it had been miserable._

" _I'm... a little afraid of the people we might become if we're not careful."_

" _So we'll be careful," Natsu replied, speaking for the first time since coming in to ask him if he wanted dinner._

 _It was something they had to constantly remind themselves of. Never to stop caring. Never to become indifferent to the pain of others._

 _After that, they tried to watch some television, but gave up after five minutes and just curled up together on the couch looking out the living room window at the city. After what they had done earlier that day, with the fighting and the blood and the corpse that the police had taken away without a word... Movies and television shows felt almost painfully pointless. Insincere. Lies that tried to make the world an easier place to live, or at least an easier place to understand—except that maybe some things just couldn't be understood. Couldn't be broken down and simplified without losing everything that was real and important._

...So much of that first year had been about figuring out their own thoughts and feelings towards their unique situation. Natsu's father had likened it to growing up and the transition all people eventually made into society at large—the difference being that perhaps the two of them had a little less leeway for error and many more serious issues to grapple with in regards to justice and morality. More than most, they had to be careful with their choices.

Not that there hadn't been good things too, because there _were_. The first time they'd gone to a park, for instance. Or actually, it had been a botanical garden...

" _Natsu, I don't think this place is open yet."_

" _That's because it's not."_

 _After all, it wasn't even five in the morning._

 _Natsu held out a hand to help him up onto the wall by the side gate. "Come on. We've only got two hours or so before the crowds start showing up."_

" _Isn't this... sort of wrong?" Zeref asked. Nonetheless, he grasped the offered hand and allowed himself to be pulled up after his partner._

" _It's not our fault we can't come during open hours," Natsu retorted. "This place is way too popular. There would be tons of people."_

" _Maybe we should have chosen somewhere less popular instead."_

" _What? No way! Why would I take you somewhere that no one else wants to visit? Places are unpopular for a reason you know."_

" _That's very thoughtful of you, but..." Zeref turned to look into the gardens and trailed off._

" _Nice, huh?" Natsu grinned. "It's the water fountains this place is_ really _famous for. There's supposed to be something special about their brick walkways too, but they just look like regular old brick to me."_

 _Without any further protest, Zeref followed him down the other side of the wall and into the garden. The elaborate network of water fountains were undeniably spectacular, and he really did want to be here. Besides, there were several spacious gazebos. They didn't have to sit right next to the plants._

 _It wasn't that he had been restricted from visiting the Facility's own open-air courtyards—despite the risk of losing large patches of flowerbed and the occasional tree. Zeref's eventual decision to stop doing so had been entirely his own. It was simply that, more often than not, being alone out in the bright sunlight made him feel worse instead of better and even more out of place._

" _It's too bad their restaurant's not open yet either," Natsu muttered. "My classmates used to rave about it all the time in middle school."_

" _You didn't come with them?"_

" _Nah, I never felt like bothering."_

 _Right. Zeref should have been able to predict that answer. Natsu hadn't been a very happy person in middle school. He'd been a little too focused, a little too driven, and a little too angry. Not that Zeref had any room to talk. His own corresponding years had been some of his worst. Even getting up in the morning had seemed too difficult at times._

 _Rather than remark on any of this, Zeref chose to say instead, "The rice balls we brought should be quite good too. Although I wish we'd remembered to stop by a convenience store for some coffee."_

 _Natsu threw a grin back over his shoulder at him and hefted his backpack. "I_ did _bring coffee. We still had some of the cold, bottled kind in the fridge."_

 _Zeref smiled. He'd forgotten about those. Technically, he preferred hot coffee, but he wasn't going to be picky._

" _So," Natsu said, stopping before a large, brass plaque upon which a map of the grounds had been engraved. "Do you want to look around first?"_

" _Yes. Do you think the staff will mind if we take one of those paper maps?"_

" _I don't see why they would. That's what the maps are there for."_

 _So Zeref took a pamphlet, and they set off to explore—stopping to read the scattering of information boards and finally settling down for breakfast in a gazebo located beside an artificial waterfall._

 _When they left, they cleaned up carefully after themselves and went out over a different part of the wall._

 _No one ever knew they had been there at all._

...And there was dinner on the docks that one time work had taken them to a seaport. They'd bought a bunch of snacks from the street vendors and snuck out to a deserted section of the pier just before sundown...

" _Do you think there are fish down there?" Zeref asked. The wooden boards of the pier creaked as he sat down near the edge and peered over it into the dark water._

" _Probably. I don't know." Natsu sat next to him and handed him one of the large, paper cups of fish stew he'd been carrying. "Don't think too much about it. I'm going to feel guilty for suggesting this if we end up with a lot of fish floating belly-up in the bay."_

 _Zeref winced at the image, but today, he could feel amused about this. They'd come here this time to help with an arson investigation and hadn't had to deal with the criminals themselves. They'd been contacted, not because of Zeref's Quirk, but because of Natsu's abilities concerning fire and Zeref's clever mind. As assignments went, it had actually been pretty good._

" _You know," his partner said thoughtfully, "your ability would be awesome in a pest control business."_

" _I suppose it would." Zeref took a second to imagine this then added, "Provided the client had no house plants or garden."_

 _It would never happen, of course, because starting a pest control business would doubtless up the risk of the wrong sort of people learning about his Quirk. Still, it was amusing to think about._

 _Natsu tried a bit of the stew, considered, and said, "Huh, it's actually really good."_

 _Zeref made a sound of agreement. Some of the police officers they'd been working with had recommended the stew, but honestly, the two of them had had serious doubts when they'd seen the dingy little shop._

" _It's too bad they ran out of fried shrimp," Zeref reflected._

" _We can drop by for some first thing tomorrow." Natsu paused, eyed the smooth expanse of ocean thoughtfully, then added, "Want to try sailing?"_

 _Zeref poked around in his cup for a piece of tofu before answering. "Only if you're okay with trying to learn how to sail a boat out of a manual. I'm not comfortable bringing anyone else along. There wouldn't be anywhere to run on a small boat, and I don't think it would go over very well if you had to throw an instructor overboard."_

 _Natsu shrugged. "As long as the sea stays this calm, how hard could it be?"_

" _Hmmm, in that case, yes, I'd love to try sailing. Can I trade you some fish for some tofu?"_

...Funny how many of Zeref's favorite memories from that year involved food. Natsu's love of food had probably rubbed off on him at least a little, although getting into the habit of eating regularly had been a bit of a struggle after neglecting the matter for as long as Zeref had.

Natsu had introduced him to a number of the other Dragon Slayers over meals too. They all had fulltime occupations, and most of them didn't live in the same areas. Because of that, Natsu and Zeref had made the trip to visit each of them instead so that Zeref could become familiar with the people he was likely to work with. Scheduling those meetings at restaurants meant that Zeref could occupy himself with the food if he got uncomfortable. A book was his preferred choice of distraction in public, but reading while you were supposed to be meeting people was just rude.

Meeting Wendy had probably been the worst. She was, after all, a doctor. Her discomfort with his presence had been so obvious that it was infectious, and they'd had to end the meeting early so Zeref could retreat to the roof and deal with his own anxiety issues in private.

Out of all the Dragon Slayers, Sting and Rogue were the only ones who dropped by the couple's apartment to introduce themselves...

 _When the doorbell rang, Zeref lowered his book and stared at the front door with some apprehension. He wasn't expecting any guests, and Natsu had a key._

 _Maybe if he ignored it, whoever it was would go away. No one was supposed to come up here anyway._

 _Seven doorbell rings later, Zeref had to concede that perhaps that was wishful thinking. Reluctantly, he set the book on the sitting room table and moved to the intercom, which—for safety reasons—was set by the far window rather than the door. When the video camera turned on, he was not entirely surprised to find that he didn't recognize the people standing out in the hallway._

" _I think you're in the wrong place," Zeref told them without preamble. Although it was bizarre in the extreme to think that anyone could get lost and wind up on the top floor of a skyscraper where there was only one apartment and one elevator out of several in the building that could reach it. Well, there were the stairs too, but you'd have to be insane to walk up more than a hundred flights of steps without checking first that you were headed in the right direction._

 _The two strangers exchanged looks, and the one with the pale, spiky hair spoke up, "I'm pretty sure this is the right address. This is where Natsu's living, isn't it?"_

 _Zeref considered this. Friends of Natsu's? Well, that was possible, although he was positive his partner knew better than to give out this address to anyone who didn't absolutely have to know it._

" _Natsu's not home yet."_

 _The Dragon Slayer had work with the fire department that morning._

" _Yeah, sorry about that. We're kind of early."_

" _Early?"_

 _The dark-haired stranger answered this time. "I'm Rogue, and he's Sting. We're supposed to meet Natsu and his partner here in about half an hour."_

 _Their names did sound familiar. Still... Natsu had forgotten to show him any pictures of the two younger Dragon Slayers, so he couldn't be sure._

" _I can't let you in. If you aren't who you say you are, you might die. I don't think I could go on living in this apartment if you die in it. It would be... disturbing."_

" _Are you always this cheerful?" Sting asked wryly._

" _I'm just being practical. I'm afraid you'll have to wait out there until Natsu gets back. Or you could get something from the coffee shop down the street and return in half an hour."_

" _You're Zeref, right?"_

" _Yes."_

 _The two shrugged and sat down on the carpeted floor of the hallway._

" _Well, we're supposed to be here to meet you, so we might as well use the time to introduce ourselves. I'm not sure how much Natsu told you, but he was our upperclassman when he was still in high school. The two of us will be graduating this year."_

" _So... you're planning on going pro?"_

" _That's right." Sting threw a grin in the direction of the video camera. "We're planning to start our own hero agency. It's going to be the best."_

...They had conversed like that over the intercom until Natsu returned and asked them why the hell they were sitting around in the corridor like that. By the time all three Dragon Slayers actually made it across the threshold, Zeref had set a fresh pot of coffee to brewing and was in the process of reheating last night's beef stew. In retrospect, it had been a stroke of luck that Sting and Rogue had arrived early. Half an hour talking like that, and Zeref had actually found himself looking forward to meeting them in person.

Unfortunately, there hadn't been much beef left in that beef stew, seeing as Natsu had eaten almost all of it the day before.

Honestly, the oddest little things stood out in Zeref's memory sometimes, and the most inconsequential of events could gain incredible significance...

 _Even though the clock on the nightstand said it was morning, the sliver of sky Zeref could see through the blinds was dark. After a moment of listening, he figured out why._

" _It's raining."_

 _Natsu stifled a yawn and opened an eye to look at him. "Yeah, the storm started something like an hour ago."_

 _This was followed by a moment of thoughtful silence, then Natsu asked, "Want to go outside?"_

 _Zeref hesitated then nodded._

" _Do we have an umbrella?"_

 _Zeref thought for a second then said, "I think I saw one when we were unpacking. Check the back of the closet."_

 _They got dressed quickly, and Natsu found the umbrella. Out by the fountain before the skyscraper, they stood for a moment while Zeref looked around at the city, the sky and buildings painted in shades of gray. He held a hand out beyond the shelter of the umbrella, feeling the cold droplets of water against his skin._

" _It's just rain," Natsu said, amused._

" _I know." Zeref drew his hand back and moved closer to his partner for warmth. "It sounds... peaceful."_

" _Peaceful, huh? I guess you could call it that. I'm surprised you don't find it depressing."_

" _It's been a long time since I've seen the rain."_

" _That's true."_

 _So they wandered through the streets for awhile, stopping by a deserted bakery for a coffee, and didn't head home until Zeref started to shiver from the cold._

...On the long walk back towards their apartment building, Zeref had found himself looking more at Natsu than at the rain-washed scenery.

He'd thought about how Natsu had gotten out of bed and gone out there with him without a single word of complaint despite the fact that it was cold and raining and they had no destination in mind. He'd thought about how much more serious Natsu was these days compared to the days of their childhood, about how hard Natsu had had to work for them to be here and the things he might have given up or missed out on. He'd thought about how the shadows that had invaded his own life had affected Natsu's as well. And more than anything, he'd thought about how much he wanted Natsu to be happy, and he'd promised himself to do whatever he could to make sure of that.

It had taken almost the entire year for their lives to settle down and develop some semblance of stability. He'd left the Facility in spring after Natsu passed his licensing exams, at which point in time, Natsu's father had given them a set of tickets to a theatrical performance—tickets they had ended up giving away. It had been too soon, and Zeref just hadn't felt up to it. However, when more tickets arrived in the mail in December, this time for a classical music concert, they had decided that maybe it was time to start giving such things a chance...

" _Why an orchestral performance?"_

" _Dad said we need to broaden our horizons, whatever that's supposed to mean."_

 _Zeref peered over the balustrade at the auditorium and the people filling up the ocean of red velvet seats below. Upon reflection, a formal performance like this had been a smart choice. You didn't get wild, waving, screaming crowds at classical music concerts. This setting was unlikely to trigger any attacks of anxiety on Zeref's part, and the box seats were a help too._

 _Come to think of it, that was probably also why back in spring, it had been dramatic theatre tickets rather than, say, movie tickets. Natsu's father had thought things through._

" _It's too bad you aren't allowed to bring snacks," Natsu said. "Something to drink at least would have been nice."_

" _Could you hand me the program? I'd like to read about the pieces they will be playing. I think it will be more interesting if we know some of the history."_

 _Natsu passed him the thin booklet. "Can you believe that little girl on the cover's already a professional violinist? I mean, she can't be more than twelve!"_

" _Thirteen, actually. It says here that she's been playing the violin since she was four."_

 _Talk about a life that had taken a drastically different path._

" _I wonder if she actually likes to play, or if she just turned out to be good at it," Natsu mused. "You can't really know what you want out of life when you're four."_

" _A lot of people don't really know what they want out of life even when they're adults." Zeref flipped through the pages of the program. "Here, they introduce a few of the composers. Shall I read it out loud?"_

 _The Dragon Slayer sighed. "Sure, why not?"_

 _Although he couldn't say that he expected it to be all that interesting. His partner had a wonderful reading voice at least, and he had a habit of pausing now and then to add his own commentary, which was often more amusing than the actual text._

 _Five minutes later, however, Natsu discovered that Zeref was right. Somehow, the history did make the music more interesting._

...To be honest, at the start of it all, it had been difficult for Zeref to imagine that things could ever settle down. It had been hard—very hard—to picture any kind of happy future that could last. They were, after all, working with rather a lot of limitations. Then again, as Natsu had pointed out, everyone had to deal with their own sets of limitations created by circumstance. So what if he would never be able to attend any crowded holiday celebrations? It wasn't like Zeref held any particular fondness for parties. So what if only a select number of individuals would ever know who he was? He'd never harbored any aspirations of fame or fortune.

Actually, they weren't doing too badly in the fortune department. They weren't rich, but they were well paid enough and didn't want for anything.

Happiness wasn't about doing all the things that other people did.

It all depended on how you looked at things...

" _I can't believe the year is ending," Zeref said, looking out at all the brightly lit windows of the city below. His own ghostly reflection looked back at him from the glass._

 _Natsu turned off the living room lights and joined him on the carpet by the window, throwing a blanket over both their shoulders—more for the atmosphere of it than any particular chill from the winter cold outside. The Dragon Slayer had wised up by then and hadn't tried to drag him to any of the usual locations that other people visited to view the display._

" _In a good way or a bad one?"_

 _Zeref drew the blanket closer about himself and leaned against him. "I'm not sure. It feels like it's been forever, but also like everything's moved too fast."_

" _Seems like a lot of life is like that."_

" _Hmmm, you might be right about that."_

 _They fell silent, and the soft sound of music from the radio in their bedroom filtered into the silence. Not long after, the first set of fireworks erupted in shimmering showers across the sky, flaring brilliantly for a moment before fading away only to be replaced by others. It seemed they'd timed it rather well._

 _Zeref let out a soft breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. They'd figured that their living room window, being as high up as it was, would provide an excellent vantage point for watching the show, but they hadn't been completely sure. It was too bad they couldn't really hear the fireworks going off though. He could just vaguely remember the whistle and boom from when he was younger._

" _Any plans for the new year?" Natsu asked. "New Year's resolutions and that sort of thing?"_

" _I think," Zeref said slowly, "that I need to find some new hobbies. Maybe I should learn to play an instrument. Or I could try painting."_

 _He needed things to do when they didn't have work or other plans, things that would distract him and stop him from getting too caught up in the thoughts bouncing around in his own head. Reading was good, but it wasn't enough._

" _Hobbies, huh? Sounds like a good idea."_

" _What about you?"_

 _Natsu grinned. "I'm thinking about arranging a ping pong tournament. Might as well use that huge room we have downstairs with the ping pong table. There's plenty of space in there. If we're careful with marking places out, the other Dragon Slayers who have partners can bring them along."_

" _A Dragon Slayer ping pong tournament?"_

" _Don't forget to include yourself."_

 _Zeref wasn't entirely sure he would enjoy playing in a ping pong tournament with a bunch of Dragon Slayers—almost all of whom tended to get carried away in competitions—but he decided to keep this opinion to himself. Maybe it would be fun. After all, it was just ping pong, right?_

" _We'd better start practicing then," he said instead. "I've never played ping pong."_

" _Really? I'll teach you. It's easy, and it's not bad exercise. My classmates and I used to hold tournaments now and then, because it was the only sport everyone was okay with playing."_

" _Is that so?"_

" _Yeah, although some people weren't so keen on it after awhile. Not sure why. We were all just getting really good at it. I know a few of the balls got flattened, but it's not like they're troublesome to replace."_

" _..."_

 _There was a long, contemplative silence, and then Natsu said, "If you think of anything you might want to do, anywhere you might want to go, let me know, all right? Even if you're not sure. Even if you don't think it's a good idea."_

 _The Dragon Slayer sounded unusually serious, and Zeref turned his head to look at him._

 _Natsu caught his inquisitive gaze and shrugged, his own eyes somewhat steely. "This is our life now. I want to know how you want to live it. Everyone has to deal with restrictions of one kind or another. That doesn't mean we can't make what we have into something that we want."_

 _Zeref was a little surprised to find that he knew what Natsu meant. Sitting here with him in this place that was finally starting to feel like home, nothing seemed quite so terrible. Even though the lights were off and it was night outside, the world didn't feel as dark as it used to._

" _I suppose not." There was a pause, then Zeref asked, "So how do you want to live it?"_

 _Natsu gave him a lopsided grin. "With everything we've got."_

 _Zeref smiled a little at that, feeling oddly warm inside in a pleasant sort of way. He should have known that would be Natsu's answer. The Slayer's hand was holding his under the quilt, and Zeref squirmed around so he could sit facing him without dislodging the blanket._

" _I suppose we've seen enough of the fireworks and the new year, even if it isn't quite midnight yet."_

" _Yeah?"_

" _Well, unless you really want to watch the countdown."_

 _The Dragon Slayer considered this and just as quickly dismissed it. Seeing as his partner was now sitting in his lap, Natsu was very much thinking about other things at this point. Mostly, he was thinking about soft skin under his fingers, the pale neck right in front of him, and the slender legs that were already halfway to being wrapped around his hips. There was amusement in Zeref's gaze when Natsu met it, and love too, making those large, dark eyes soft and warm. It was a look only Natsu ever got from him, and the Dragon Slayer felt a sudden surge of fierce possessiveness in response._

 _Natsu pulled him closer with the hand he was still holding while his other hand dropped to rest on his partner's thigh. There was a slight hitch of breath, then Zeref leaned forward, wrapping his arms loosely around Natsu's neck so he could murmur into the Dragon Slayer's ear._

" _I suppose it's lucky that the lights are already off, or I'd insist we move."_

" _You're not going to argue about the curtains today?"_

" _Not today. Besides, it's night outside."_

 _And the fireworks were still going, and the whole city apart from them was caught up in the celebration of the ending of one year and the start of a next. Natsu didn't need more of an invitation._

...One year to start dreaming again—not dreams of escape or dreams of simply being someone else, but real dreams. Dreams about the future, about themselves, and about how life might be in a few years if they worked at it.

All considered, Zeref didn't think one year was bad at all.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

 **AN** : I've decided to scatter some interlude chapters through this story, because there were things I wanted to write from the past three years that I couldn't fit into flashbacks. I thought about posting them separately, but they wouldn't have made enough sense out of context.

.


	6. The Choices We Make

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

 **CHAPTER WARNINGS: mentions of suicide/attempted suicide**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **6\. The Choices We Make**

" _Heroes and villains are cut from the same cloth"_

 _~ Best Jeanist, My Hero Academia, season 2 episode 14_

"All of these people are suspects?" Ochaco asked, looking over the papers spread out across Izuku's kitchen table.

Izuku had invited her and Iida over that morning for breakfast and to discuss some of the details of the case. He'd been immersed in gathering and analyzing so much information in the past three days that it was all starting to make his head spin. He needed some new perspectives.

"These are some of them," he said, grabbing two more slices of toast from the toaster before joining his friends at the table. "All of these people have Quirks related to manipulating plants that allow for long distance attacks, they've all worked at or have connections with a flower shop or greenhouse some time in the last few months that Jenny Mikaka might have visited, and they all have reasons to dislike pro heroes."

"Like what exactly?"

"Well," Izuku pointed at a few of the photographs, "like these three. They all have relatives who were villains. One's in jail, and the other two were killed in fights with heroes. Then there's this guy. His father was killed when a villain went on a rampage. The heroes at the scene didn't intervene as quickly as they could have because they were waiting for a pro with the "right" kind of Quirk. I think they're the most likely culprits, since each of them would have had several strategic advantages against the students who were abducted."

Iida pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and frowned. "Is it really all right for you to be sharing this with us? I know we've been helping you make phone calls to the different schools, but that was part of our team's instructions."

"I think it's okay," Izuku assured him. "I mean, Natsu and Zeref didn't say we couldn't talk about what we were doing with our classmates. And anyway, I think the more we all know, the safer everyone will be—provided we don't go trying to hunt down the villains or the hostages on our own."

"So what are they like?" Ochaco asked curiously. "Are they nice?"

"Nice isn't exactly the word I would use," Izuku said slowly, thinking about a line of red tape on the cafeteria floor. "Not that they're mean or anything either. But they're... kind of eccentric."

And Izuku still felt bad about two days ago.

.

 _Some not real._

Zeref sat back, frowning at his computer screen. Those were the words Natsu and Detective Shinra had found scratched into a warehouse floor, and they were bothering him.

Sunlight slanted through the window and across the conference table. He'd left the window open to allow in a warm, summer breeze, and it would have been pleasant if the task at hand wasn't so grim. Every day that they failed to track down these villains was one less day they had until the deadline. Assuming the villains played by their own rules and the missing students weren't already dead.

"Some not real," Zeref murmured aloud.

What did that mean? What wasn't real? Could it be some kind of illusion type Quirk? He'd heard of people who could bend and refract light in order to create mirages. It was a pretty uncommon ability, but not so rare that they couldn't find a few candidates. If there was an illusionist among these villains—and Zeref was almost positive that there was more than one villain involved here—then things could get tricky.

"Um, Zeref, sir?"

Zeref sighed. "Just my name is fine. What do you need? You're headed to Kiki's Nursery today with Natsu, correct? He should be back in a few minutes."

"It's not that. Or, well, I _am_ here to meet him so we can go over there, but I also wanted to talk to you." Izuku swallowed hard then cleared his throat. "I wanted to apologize."

Taken aback, Zeref glanced over at him. "What for?"

"Well, it's just that..."

Izuku trailed off and appeared to be struggling with himself, unsure if he ought to say what he was thinking about saying.

Zeref sighed. This had been going on for days, ever since that discussion they'd had the other evening, and he really needed to do something to clear the air. The kid's awkwardness and tension was starting to aggravate Zeref's anxiety issues, and none of them needed to deal with that in addition to everything else.

"If you're concerned about the other day, it really wasn't your fault and you shouldn't let it bother you."

"Um, yeah, but I wanted to say sorry anyway. You seemed... really upset. I wasn't really thinking about what it must be like to have a Quirk like yours. I've always thought of Quirks as useful things, and I suppose I just never considered how having certain kinds of Quirks might actually be bad. I mean, I guess you probably don't get to go out much for one thing."

That was a colossal understatement.

Zeref rested his elbows on the tabletop, regarding the high school student over his clasped hands. Izuku had obviously thought a lot about this. Zeref wasn't sure what or how much to say. Generally speaking, he didn't like to talk about himself. But...

" _Try not to be too hesitant about sharing things about yourself_ ," Aizawa had told him when Zeref called to discuss their choice of team members with him. " _They're here to learn, after all. It's good for them to hear about experiences so different from their own. Besides, some of them might surprise you_."

Well, if the high school teacher thought it was a good idea, Zeref would try.

"Like I've said, I'm not really allowed outside at all without a companion," he said, choosing his words with care. "Someone like Natsu or Mr. Aizawa who is able to help manage my Quirk. Before Natsu graduated from this school, I pretty much just lived in this combination apartment and office complex that belongs to a government agency that specializes in researching and coping with especially strange or dangerous abilities."

"But your friends and family could visit you, right?"

The smile that made its way onto Zeref's face had virtually no humor in it. "Just Natsu, and not until after he started classes here. It's difficult to build or maintain friendships when you're set apart from everyone like that, and I was never particularly outgoing, even before my Quirk. Natsu was the only one I knew from before that didn't give up on me. Of course, it probably helped that he knew what had actually happened to me. None of my classmates were told the truth, and the school did everything it could to stop any rumors about my Quirk from spreading. My parents... They never asked to see me, and they stopped writing to me after the first three years. I haven't seen or heard from them since. I don't think they even live in this city anymore. I thought about looking for them when I was allowed to leave the Facility, but... I'm not sure I want to see them now. I think... that it would hurt too much."

Zeref still had every letter that Natsu had written to him back then, all carefully stored in a wooden box in their closet back home. The first few "letters" had been more like collections of photographs, pictures that Natsu had taken of his day and sent along to Zeref so that his friend could be a part of it. After awhile, classes had gotten more academic, and Natsu had learned to write more lengthy messages—describing his teachers, his rowdy classmates—trying in his way to add in every detail he thought Zeref might have wanted to know so that he could imagine it for himself. They weren't masterful prose or even all that well written letters, but Zeref cherished each and every one, especially since he knew how difficult writing was for him. They told Zeref that he had not been forgotten, and that at least for Natsu, he still had a place in his life. On bad days, those letters had been the only reminder he had had that he was still, in fact, a human being.

Zeref didn't say any of this aloud, however. These were things he kept in a back corner of his mind where they wouldn't interfere with his ability to function. Sometimes, when he really needed to, he'd call Aizawa to talk, because there were some things he just couldn't burden Natsu with—like the fact that he'd taken a knife to himself after he'd killed those two research assistants. He couldn't tell Natsu that sometimes, the Dragon Slayer was the only reason that he worked so hard to _live_ even when he felt like the world would be better off without him. That knowledge was far too heavy a burden to place on someone he loved, although sometimes, he suspected that Natsu knew.

Again, it was something he didn't—couldn't—let himself think about too much.

"It's ironic really. What happened probably made me less rather than more able to manage my Quirk in the long run," Zeref said, musing aloud. "I don't blame them though. People were scared, partly of my abilities, but even more of the possibility of a villain getting a hold of me. It's not as big a problem now that I'm no longer a child, but back then, it was a logical concern. I don't know what else anyone could have done. It's easy to let ourselves become defined by our Quirks even though we shouldn't..."

Zeref trailed off, remembering that he was talking to a high school student. Had he said too much? Talking to himself was a bit of a bad habit he'd picked up from being alone so much.

"My apologies. I've probably made you uncomfortable. People don't generally like to talk about such things."

"Oh, um, no, that's okay." Izuku glanced down at his feet then back across the table at Zeref. "I can't say that it doesn't make me uncomfortable, and I can't say that I really understand. But I guess a lot of important things are like that."

"Important things," Zeref repeated thoughtfully. "I suppose so."

Natsu returned shortly after that from his early morning conference with the local police, and he and Izuku left to meet up with some of the other students at the shuttle station for their trip to Hosu. Zeref remained sitting by the open window, looking out across the school grounds and enjoying the feel of the breeze against his face. He'd told someone about the past, someone who hadn't been deeply involved in it, and nothing bad had happened. Certainly, it had still been a somewhat uncomfortable conversation, but not unbearably so. It was... kind of nice. Like his world had gotten a little bigger somehow without becoming any more overwhelming.

Maybe it wasn't just these students that Aizawa thought could learn something from this experience.

.

"You know," Natsu said, looking at the three boys, "maybe we should have arranged for the girls to come along too, seeing as we're going to a plant nursery and all. We'd probably stand out less. Then again, I guess that's kind of a stereotypical way to think."

Around them, the shuttle platform bustled with people heading to and from work with a handful of tourists and vacationers mixed in. Kiki's Nursery was only three blocks away, just one more in a string of flower shops, greenhouses, and nurseries that they'd been checking out. The two girls on their makeshift team were working with Detective Shinra today, which left Natsu with Todoroki, Shinso, and Izuku.

"I suppose you lot could pretend to be looking for the right flower to give to someone you like."

The three students stared at him.

Natsu shrugged. "Or you could be working on a school assignment focusing on genetically altered plants, but it's less plausible since you should be on summer break."

"Is this really necessary?" Todoroki asked, frowning. "It's not like the villain doesn't know we're looking for him and the abductees."

"That might be true, but it's always good to have the advantage of surprise. Or just to be a little confusing," Natsu said. "The less the bad guys know we know, the better. If they're looking at this as a competition, nothing's to stop them from making changes in order to outdo us if they believe we're onto them. It doesn't have to be an elaborate charade or anything. In fact, it's probably better if you keep it simple. Just make sure you have your stories straight."

The three students exchanged dubious glances, but set off down the street without further protest. Natsu waited for them to get some distance ahead of him before starting after them, stuffing his hands in his pockets and surveying the surrounding people and buildings. Honestly, Natsu would have preferred to leave the kids behind. He didn't need their help to check on these suspects. But the whole point here was that the villains needed to see the students working, not some random adult. The more visible the students were, the less noticeable Natsu would be.

The Dragon Slayer paused when he saw the three hesitate before the nursery's glass double doors. He grinned to himself. This was going to be amusing. Now he just had to come up with his own excuse for being here. He doubted anyone would believe that he was, say, a professional landscaper.

.

Even though Kiki's Nursery was a nursery and sold mostly plants meant to find new homes in gardens and parks, it offered a decent selection of gift items as well including artfully arranged bouquets and flowers in small, decorative holders.

Todoroki took in the few people scattered throughout the large, airy room at a glance and said, "I don't see either of the people we're interested in."

He was right, Izuku realized. The store had an open layout that made it easy to see all of it without having to walk around much.

Before they could decide what they should do about this, a short, reedy woman in a green apron hurried around a collection of azaleas to meet them.

"I've seen all of you on TV," she said, beaming. "Wonderful job at the Sports Festival. How may I help you today?"

The excuses Natsu had suggested they use flashed through their minds. Uh, then again, maybe not.

"I'm not sure yet," Todoroki told her instead. "I'll take a look around and then let you know."

Shinso was quick to follow his example. "I think I'll do the same."

There was no way he was sticking around to try and answer questions about some imaginary girl he was supposed to be hoping to give flowers to.

Mentally, Izuku groaned. The woman looked disappointed, and he felt bad about making some excuse like the others. Anyway, hadn't they come here to talk to people? Even if it wasn't the people they were looking for, that didn't mean they couldn't learn anything useful.

Crap, the gift excuse did seem better than the homework excuse. He'd hesitated too long for the latter to be believable. Maybe he could combine the two?

"Um, I heard that the plants here can come in some really unusual colors," Izuku said, which was the truth. The boy they'd talked to at the other flower shop had emphasized the fact.

The nursery assistant smiled. "They sure do. I can show you some of our customer favorites if you'd like."

"Sure, okay."

The woman led him over to the gift corner, chattering about their first, pale blue rose as she went—one of their "absolute, most popular" items. Izuku glanced over the checkout counter as they passed it and frowned. Aside from the vase of blue roses on the countertop, there was another vase on the floor by the cashier's stool brimming with purplish blossoms.

"Hey, what about those?" he asked, pointing. "Is there anything unusual about them?"

"What?" The woman stopped and turned to follow the direction of his gesture. Her smile faltered. "Oh, never mind those. You wouldn't want to give those to anyone."

"Why not?"

The woman coughed delicately. "Because they're poisonous. Miss Misaki took a liking to growing those particular flowers, but we don't sell it to customers. It's far too dangerous. To be honest, I'm not even sure it's legal. But then oleander is poisonous too, and we're allowed to sell that, so maybe it's okay. Anyway, she says it reminds her of someone she knew."

"Who's Misaki?" Izuku asked even though he already knew the answer.

"She owns this place. Opened it awhile ago with a friend of hers. She's not here today though. She's been feeling a little under the weather lately..."

Natsu kept an eye on the three students while he browsed the many lanes of flowers in plastic trays and thin, young trees in buckets of damp earth. The rest of his attention was focused on the man who had just stepped through the shop's back door. Natsu recognized him at once from the photographs as one of the two people they had come to see: Akira Kimihara, botanist and co-owner of Kiki's Nursery. In person, the man stood a little shorter than Natsu and sported a mane of dark green hair not unlike the green of the leaves on many of the plants he looked after. Although he was registered as having no Quirk, reports of some strange occurrences at the university he'd attended shed some doubts on the truth of this. At the moment, he was observing the same students that Natsu was, and doing so with a keen intensity that the Dragon Slayer found more than a little suspicious. There was something cold and glassy about the man's pale brown eyes that made them appear more like glass marbles than eyes.

"Hey," Natsu said, approaching him. "Could I get a few suggestions?"

Kimihara blinked and looked away from the children, fixing a smile on his face. "Of course. Sorry, I didn't see you. What are you looking for? Flowers for a garden? Or for someone special? We have a very unique selection for those hoping to give a memorable gift."

"Yeah, my partner's not big on flowers," Natsu said dryly. "Finds them depressing, to be perfectly honest. I'm here 'cause I accidentally burned down a tree where I work. I promised I'd replace it."

"Ah. Do you know what kind of tree it was?"

"Nope. I don't know the first thing about trees, and I don't think they care that it's the same kind."

The botanist laughed. "In that case, I'll do my best to give you some suggestions, but it would be easier if they cared."

"Well, if you tell me the pros and cons, I can pick a few in my budget and then ask their opinions before I make the purchase."

Kimihara nodded. "That's a wise plan. Trees, especially larger ones, can be quite expensive even these days when some Quirks can help them grow faster."

Natsu shrugged, indicating that he really didn't care about the details.

Kimihara moved along the rows of trees, introducing the different species and describing their ideal growing conditions. Every now and then, his gaze would flicker towards the students, who had dispersed to wander on their own through the nursery. Well, all except Izuku, who was still trapped in conversation with the female shop assistant.

There was something very cold about the look in the botanist's eyes, Natsu thought, although Akira hid it well. The Dragon Slayer recognized it because he used to see that same coldness staring back at him from out of the mirror. It was the coldness of an anger that had been simmered a little too long and distilled into something very close to hate.

.

Asui balanced easily on the tree branch, staring with borderline disbelief at the rough, brown bark of the trunk.

 _Uh oh._

She didn't like the looks of this, not one bit.

"Uh, Kyoka, I think I know what you thought you heard. You'd better get Detective Shinra."

The dark-haired girl peered up from where she stood on the ground beneath the tree's spreading boughs, pulling out her cell phone even as she asked, "Why? What did you find?"

"Well... Let's just say that I'm never going to look at a tree the same way again."

Detective Shinra arrived with her partner Ishikawa, and the four of them ringed the tree, carefully running their hands along the bark.

"You're sure she's in there?"

"I wish I wasn't," Asui admitted. "What Kyoka was hearing, I think it's her heartbeat."

"How do we get her out though?" Kyoka asked, frowning. "I think the tree's supplying her with water at least, and probably some nutrients. It's keeping her alive, even if it's also keeping her prisoner. What if we tear her out and we end up hurting her badly in the process?"

"That's a very good point," Detective Ishikawa said grimly. "We'd better rope this place off and contact the others."

At the very least, they now had confirmation that at least one of the missing students was still alive.

.

"Mr. Aizawa?"

Zeref stood in the doorway of the faculty room, his open laptop balanced on his arm.

Aizawa and All Might were both there today, seated on either side of a table with papers and folders spread out across the tabletop.

"Are those the files on Kimihara?"

"That's right," All Might said. "A detective friend of mine on the force managed to collect these for us. Kimihara isn't cited by name in any of the incidents reported on his old college campus, but given what we know about his class schedule and club activities, his involvement was almost certainly a sure thing."

Zeref nodded as though he had expected to hear that and then moved to sit at a table in the far corner by the window. It was a good distance away from where the teachers were working, but close enough that the three of them could still talk.

"You said that you believe there are two of them?" All Might asked, glancing over at Zeref.

"That's right. One who uses plants and manipulates them to fight and another that can cause people to hallucinate."

"The fog?"

"That's what I believe, yes. Several of your students have managed to collect testimonies from people who saw or were caught out in that fog. Of course, eyewitness testimonies are often unreliable, but in these cases, their differences are... implausibly extreme. I'm thinking that perhaps the hallucinations are individualized. Personal. True hallucinations and not illusions that all people can see. Oh, and a few people say that it smelled... sweet."

"A sweet-smelling fog that causes hallucinations, huh?" All Might leaned back, his chair squeaking in protest at the motion. "Well, that's pretty weird."

"No more so than many of the other abilities people have these days," Zeref said, pulling up the file he'd started on Kimihara on his computer. "Could one of you brief me on what's been found?"

Aizawa took a sip of his coffee and stood up. "All Might can fill you in. I have a few people I need to talk to."

After he'd disappeared into the corridor, Zeref turned his expectant gaze on the other high school teacher.

There was something just a tiny bit disconcerting about being looked at by him, All Might thought. There wasn't any malice in the young man's eyes, nor any coldness for that matter. If anything, his gaze was quiet and calm—and completely unreadable. Like Zeref was taking in everything he saw and judging it without giving away any of his own thoughts. It was an unsettling way to be appraised by someone so young.

All Might cleared his throat and looked down at his notes. "Well, as you know, there were a number of incidents while Kimihara was still a college student. The first really notable case happened during his second year. One of his classmates fell from the roof of the science building. The police called it an accident. The railing around the roof hadn't been well maintained, and they thought he'd leaned against it and fell when the railing broke."

Zeref nodded slowly, tapping on a few keys. "And then? What was odd?"

The older man shot him a mirthless grin. "Mostly, it's where he fell and what he looked like. Sure, the railing was in bad shape, but it would have taken quite a bit of force to actually cause it to snap apart the way it did. It seems more likely that the student was running when he hit the rails, and that was what led to his death. Oh... And there was a heavy fog that day. It's not too strange for that city since it's by the sea and heavy fogs are common, but all considered, it's kind of suspicious."

"Perhaps he was running from something so terrifying that he forgot he was on a roof and fell to his death," Zeref said, summing up the potential course of events in a cool, even voice that seemed almost indifferent.

All Might frowned. "Maybe. He was competing with Kimihara for a research scholarship in plant genetics. With him out of the way, Kimihara got the money no problem."

"So perhaps Kimihara took advantage of these unknown powers to cause his competitor to run into a fatal accident," Zeref said, musing aloud. "That matches up with my thoughts on the driver incident."

"The one where his teacher got put in the hospital when he was almost run over by a van?" All Might asked. "Yeah, I guess I can see that. The van driver swore he never saw anyone in front of him. Although he does remember smelling something sweet, even though he wasn't carrying any sweet cargo"

"No food? Candy? Flowers maybe?"

"Nope." All Might shook his head and reached for another file folder that he'd set aside. "The last really suspicious incident happened just after Kimihara's graduation, though it was really just gossip rather than an actual incident. A lot of people thought they saw a girl in the audience at the ceremony. They seemed close and she supposedly left with him after the event, but none of his teachers or classmates had ever heard of or seen her before. When they describe her, it doesn't even sound like they saw the same girl. The only person in the audience who saw and recognized—or thought she recognized—her was Kimihara's mother, who subsequently had a heart attack and was hospitalized. She told the medics that her daughter had come to attend her brothers graduation, but her daughter—Kimihara's twin sister, had died more than six years before."

"That's very interesting," Zeref murmured. "What do we know about her?"

All Might pulled out a manila folder and walked over to hand it to him, ignoring the anxious, warning glance that Zeref shot his way. "Here. Her name was Akiko, and she did have a Quirk. A deadly one."

"Poison?"

"Strongest poison anyone had seen in a long time. She became rather unpopular at school because of it. If she disliked you, skin contact pretty much meant you'd had it. It was fiercely corrosive. Very frightening. She jumped off the roof of the school clock tower when she was thirteen."

Zeref stilled, the folder resting still unopened in his hands.

"She... killed herself?"

"Yeah. It's terrible, I know. I can only imagine how unhappy she must have been. From what we could find out, she generally wasn't bullied in person—it would have been far too dangerous—but people can be terrible to one another online. Her classmates won't admit it openly, but she was ostracized on campus too, even though no one tried to push her around. All the other students were scared of her."

"And Akira Kimihara?"

"His sister went to an all-girls school, so he couldn't exactly join her. He kept trying to get their parents to transfer her out and to the school he was attending, but hers was the more prestigious institution and they thought it would jumpstart her career."

What a joke that had turned out to be.

Zeref closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, holding the air in his lungs for a few counts before slowly letting it out again. He had never been the kind of person that other people tried to bully—he'd had far too much self assurance for that while he'd been in school—but that didn't mean he couldn't understand her pain. He knew what it was like to feel alone in a crowd and how oppressive that feeling could be. He knew, also, what it was like to think that maybe dying would be easier than trying to live.

"Hey, you okay? You look like you've got something on your mind."

The older man's gaze was sharp and serious, but there was kindness in it too. Zeref was reminded for the first time that All Might was supposed to be the best hero there was—possibly the best hero there had ever been since heroism had become a profession. Like many of the students at this school, the man was a hero because he truly cared about others.

A very small smile found its way onto Zeref's face. He liked knowing that there were people like that around. It made it a little easier to have faith in humanity as a whole—something he admittedly struggled with.

"It's nothing. I was just thinking about the past."

"The past can be an unpleasant place," All Might observed. "You know, you seem pretty normal, all considered."

"I try."

Most of the time anyway, when he felt up to it.

Normal, huh? Zeref wasn't so sure about that.

Normal was not the sight of his own blood staining his fingers and soaking into the ivory carpet of his underground living quarters; they'd moved him to a different set of rooms after that where they hoped he'd be reminded of fewer bad memories. Normal was not being the target of attempted murder; he had no idea where that staff member had been transferred and didn't care as long as the man stayed out of his life. That had been what, a year before Natsu started visiting him? A bit less? He still harbored an aversion to orange juice, since it was where the man had hid the poison, and it was probably also because of him that Zeref's ability to read people's emotions and intentions from their facial features and body language was as keen as it was. He'd forced himself to learn.

Then again, considering all of that, perhaps All Might wasn't that far off the mark. Zeref _had_ turned out more normal than people might expect.

"Honestly though," Zeref said, thinking out loud, "I don't believe I've thought much about what is or is not normal. Normal is relative, and it's difficult to define in a society like this one. It might be more accurate to say that "normal" is a state of mind."

"Normal as a state of mind," All Might repeated, puzzling over his choice of words. "So you mean like crazy and not crazy?"

The younger of the two made an amused sound in his throat. "Yes, I suppose that _is_ what I mean. Along with what's commonplace, of course."

Back at his own table, All Might leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Tell me, do you dislike the fact that people have Quirks?"

Zeref gave a small shrug and flipped open the file folder to peruse the collected documents. "I dislike the prejudice associated with Quirks, but no, I do not dislike the fact that Quirks exist in general. There's no point. They're just something we have to learn to live with. I dislike my own Quirk, yes, but... I have had reason to be grateful for it as well."

"Yeah? Well, I'm glad it hasn't been all bad."

"It hasn't," Zeref agreed after a moment's hesitation, "but grateful for is not the same as good."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Let's just say that Natsu and I make a very deadly team and leave it at that." A moment of silence followed this cryptic comment, then Zeref asked, "So what about Kimihara's business partner, Misaki Yamada?"

.

Tenya Iida knew that he shouldn't have been walking back to his family residence alone, but he hadn't wished to impose on Ochaco's parents after accompanying her home and his own family members were all busy with work. Important work. He couldn't allow himself to disturb them. Besides, he was one of the fastest runners in his class. If he did encounter trouble, he had confidence that he could get away.

So it was that Iida was the one who saw the girl, her long, black hair framing a lightly freckled face that he had seen staring back at him out of a photograph.

Iida hesitated on the otherwise deserted sidewalk. Where had all the other pedestrians gone? For that matter, where were all the cars? He could have sworn there had been cars racing down the street to his right only moments ago.

"Jenny Mikaka?" he called out, his voice sounding a little too loud in the still street. "Are you Jenny Mikaka?"

The girl didn't respond. Instead, she shot him a frightened glance and took a step back against the apartment building beside her. Her gaze flicked from Iida to the other end of the street, which—he noticed suddenly—was beginning to appear faded and blurred. Was that mist? In the middle of a city? At this time in the afternoon?

Several thoughts flashed through Iida's mind at that moment. One of the missing students was right in front of him. He might be able to get some answers—might even be able to help her. But he had promised not to act alone, and right now, he was very much on his own. If this was a trap, which it very well might be, he would only make the situation worse for everyone.

Iida grit his teeth. He wanted to help her, but he had promised himself that he would be careful, and so he turned and ran as quickly as he could in the other direction, cursing himself with every step. He felt like such a coward, even though he knew he wasn't running because he was afraid for himself. He was running because he couldn't risk allowing himself to become a burden. That meant not rushing into things and getting captured.

So instead, committing every detail of the encounter to memory, Iida set his jaw and sprinted down the sidewalk back towards the U.A. campus—the only place he knew he would be completely safe. He had information that he had to pass along.

Iida didn't slow until he had made it through the front doors of the main school building. Once there, he locked the doors behind him and leaned back against the wall while he dug his cell phone from his pocket and dialed a familiar number.

"Midoriya!"

"Hey, Iida, are you okay? You sound kind of off. Were you running?"

Iida cut straight to the chase. "I saw Jenny—you know, Jenny Mikaka."

"One of the hostages," Izuku said cautiously. "Are you sure it was her?"

"Yes, yes! I'm sure. I saw her when I was walking home. She was standing by this apartment building and the street was getting all foggy. I didn't know we got fog like that in the afternoon. We might still be able to find her if we put together a team now. She looked scared. I doubt she would have gone far."

"Iida, calm down," the green-haired boy said, his own voice calm and concerned on the other end of the phone. "It was a trick. You couldn't have seen Jenny Mikaka."

Iida frowned, some of the adrenalin finally easing up. "How can you be so sure?"

"Well," Izuku said carefully. "You couldn't have seen Jenny Mikaka over there. It's impossible, because we've just found her, and we're pretty sure she hasn't been doing much walking. I can't tell you much right now, but I'll explain it later. Just—don't go running after her if you see her again, or any of the others. The fact that you didn't is probably why you haven't gone missing too. Oh, and stay away from any parks."

Iida lowered his phone from his ear, staring blankly out through the glass doors at the trees that lined either side of the wide, brick walkway. Did that mean he was the villain's next target? Or had he simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time? If not to ambush him, who else could the odd incidents have been for?

Ochaco. He had been walking home with Ochaco.

Heart pounding in his throat, Iida dialed a different number on his cell and held it up to his ear, praying that the auburn-haired girl would pick up.

"Hello? Iida? Are you home yet? Is everything all right?"

He relaxed. Right, he was probably just being paranoid.

"Um, yes, I'm fine. Could you look out a window and tell me if it's foggy over there?"

.

"The tree was moved here by workers from the Maple Forest Greenhouse last week, and according to the greenhouse employees, they got the tree from Kiki's Nursery."

"Might explain the three week deadline," Natsu observed. "On average, you should be able to live about what—two?—three weeks without food as long as you have water? Well, provided you're in good shape."

And the tree was probably supplying its captive with some basic nutrients in addition to fresh water.

Detective Koji Ishikawa glowered from his seat in the police station conference room. There were students present, so he strived valiantly not to show his dislike of the young Dragon Slayer. But honestly, he knew he wasn't doing a great job of hiding it—courtesy of the way Keiko Shinra kept stepping on his foot under the table.

"We put together a list of all of Kiki's Nursery's recent sales like you suggested," Izuku said, pulling a sheet of paper from the backpack at his feet. "Um, it's a surprisingly long list even when you restrict it to sales involving trees large enough to hide a person in."

He hesitated, glanced at the three adults present who only waited for him to make his decision, then slid the paper over the table to Kyoka. "I guess it would make the most sense for you to check them out."

All three adults nodded their approval at this plan, and Izuku relaxed a little. Honestly, the odd tension in the room between Natsu and the new detective was kind of unsettling.

"What about using something like a stethoscope?" Todoroki spoke up. "Jenny Mikaka is still in that tree, right? If we can hear a human heartbeat in the wood with the help of some kind of instrument, it wouldn't all be up to Kyoka. We could get things done much more quickly."

"It's worth a try," Asui said, her dark eyes moving from one of her classmates to the next. "The paramedics said that it might be dangerous to try and remove her from the tree without the help of the person who put her there to begin with. They're monitoring her vital signs and will make sure the tree doesn't hurt her, but they're not going to try to move them—her or the tree."

"If we could just find Misaki, I could tell her to get the trees to release them," Shinso volunteered.

But unfortunately, no one had seen the female co-owner of Kiki's Nursery in at least a week.

"Well," Natsu said, "now that we've confirmed our suspects, I can work on tracking her down. I need a warrant for searching her apartment."

"Yeah, yeah." Koji sighed. "So where's your little shadow? He never left your side last spring. Don't tell me it's just you on this job."

At least the other one tended to think before he acted.

Keiko kicked his shins again, but it was too late to take back the words. Besides, he really did want to know.

"Not that it's any of your business," Natsu said, "but he can do what he needs to do from a distance—at least for now."

That told Koji that his suspicions had been well founded. His mouth thinned. For heaven's sake, they were working with hero program students! What kind of example did the higher-ups think they were going to set here? It wasn't that Koji didn't believe these villains deserved it, because he did. He just didn't approve of skipping over the standard judicial process, and he definitely disapproved of the ruthless and sometimes brutal way the two young men went about their work.

It just... didn't sit right with him, even though he knew Natsu and his partner didn't go on these assignments because they particularly wanted to.

" _Call it a compromise_ ," Natsu had told him once, " _between the people who want to keep Zeref locked up and the people who want to use his abilities to "benefit" society. We agree to carry out a few of these assignments and to follow a few rules, and the rest of the time, the government makes sure we're left alone_."

This wasn't the life they would have chosen if they had had more options. Koji was sympathetic on that account, but the way things had gone last spring...

Abruptly, Natsu shoved his chair back and stood. "I'm going to look over the tree one more time before we head back to the school. I'll meet you kids at the shuttle platform."

The students glanced at each other, wondering if they should follow their team leader or not. He didn't seem to want them along right now though.

Todoroki spoke up after a moment of awkward silence, addressing the two police detectives. "So... what happened last spring? If you don't mind us asking."

The two adults exchanged looks. Keiko bit her lip, and her partner sighed. What he really wanted right now was a cigarette.

"Did you kids hear about the serial bombings?"

It had been a bad case, that was for sure. Koji had been on the police force for a number of years by that point, but with the pro heroes doing most of the heavy-lifting when it came to facing crime, he hadn't personally been involved in that many active investigations.

The first bomb had gone off in the elevator shaft of one of those multi-floor department stores. By sheer, dumb luck, no one had been seriously injured, and the police had begun working with a local hero agency to track down the culprit. The second bombing had taken place at midday in a popular amusement park, and that time, people hadn't been so fortunate.

It had turned out that the villain hadn't had a Quirk at all—something that surprised almost everyone. Instead, he'd been a genius with mechanics, and he'd harbored a deep hatred of all the people with powers who had mocked him or otherwise made his life difficult when he was trying—and failing—to make a name for himself. Koji couldn't remember exactly when he had realized that the only thing the villain cared about was stirring up fear and proving his own superiority, and absolutely everyone—young and old, stranger and acquaintance—was on the bastard's hit list. The knowledge had chilled him to the bone, but it had also made him angry and determined.

Then one day, his supervisor had called him into the office and introduced him—with a great deal of careful explanation and warning—to two strange, young men.

"I think I remember reading something about that," Izuku said, musing aloud. "The villain was responsible for almost a dozen cases of terrorism, but he died when his own explosives went off accidentally before he could be arrested."

The public had breathed a sigh of relief at that.

Koji grimaced. "That's the official story, but... it wasn't an accident. He was already dead when the explosion hit."

And Koji would have nightmares about the incident for the rest of his life. Of course, it hadn't taken him long after starting to work with the pair to realize that they had been brought in to kill, not to capture. But seeing that Dragon Slayer rip the man's throat out with his bare hands had been far more than Koji Ishikawa had bargained for when he'd decided to become a police officer. The detective had gone home after that and thrown up what felt like a week's worth of meals. Getting rid of the man had been Zeref's responsibility, but the Dragon Slayer's dark-haired partner had been badly injured in the fight. Later, Koji had learned that it was the first and only time that Zeref had ever been hurt on a job. In addition to that, one of the two's rather small circle of close friends had still been in the hospital from one of the villain's early attacks.

"Sometimes, the world isn't a very nice place," Koji said at last with a sigh. "But I expect you kids know that already. Right and wrong... it's not always that easy to tell the difference."

.

Natsu stalked out of the police station, glaring at no one in particular. Hell, if anyone had told him back when he'd still been in school that he'd end up doing investigative work and collaborating extensively with the police, he probably would have scoffed. Then again, he hadn't seriously thought about what kind of career he wanted since elementary school. The only thing he'd known for sure was that he didn't want to be a hero, unlike the vast majority of his classmates. What right would he have, after all, to call himself a hero if he couldn't even save one friend?

Yes, pro heroes often did good and important work, but he hated how society could glorify the use of Quirks that way when there were people like Zeref who had Quirks that got them locked away through no fault of their own. Villains were even worse, like they thought just because they had powerful Quirks, it gave them the right to do whatever they wanted. It still made Natsu angry when he thought about it.

About how unfair the world was sometimes.

And it was frustrating that that was nobody's fault. If you had any brain cells worth mentioning, you'd realize after some thought that there was no one person or thing that was _responsible_ —no one thing you could blame. The world was too complicated for that, and sometimes, that was so incredibly infuriating.

Natsu exhaled slowly and looked up at the tree, which would have looked much like any other tree if it weren't for the face of the girl just visible further up the trunk where parts of the bark had been peeled away. The sight was slightly creepy, even with all the weird things that people could do these days. It was lucky that Jenny Mikaka still hadn't regained consciousness. To be conscious and trapped in a tree would likely be a traumatic experience. The paramedics had reported also that, malnourished though she might be, if they could just get her out of the tree and to a hospital within the next few days, she should make a full recovery. In the meantime, the doctors were working on a way to feed her without interfering with the workings of the tree.

She would be okay. If they didn't find the other two soon, however, those students might not be so lucky.

Still looking up into the branches, Natsu pulled out his cell phone.

Zeref answered on the second ring. _"Natsu?"_

The sound of that familiar voice eased the black anger threatening to rise in the back of his mind and some of the tension left Natsu's shoulders.

"Hey. Have you eaten yet?"

" _Lunch, yes. Dinner, no. It's still early. Should I wait for you?"_

Late afternoon light filtered down through the tree's sparse foliage, casting dappled shadows on the small patch of grass around it. Did they have to worry about the poor girl getting sunburned now that the bark had been peeled away? He'd have to talk to the doctors about that.

"As much as I'd like to eat dinner together, it might be awhile before I get back. Got to make sure all the kids get home okay."

" _Hmmm, maybe you should treat them to dinner."_

"What? That's a little random."

" _This is about Detective Ishikawa, correct? They'll have questions_ ," Zeref pointed out.

Natsu grunted. He didn't really care at the moment if they had questions. He wanted to go home, have dinner with his partner, maybe take a shower together, and remind himself that their lives had changed.

" _It'll make things more difficult if they don't trust us. It's better that they hear our reasons from us."_

Past experience had taught them the value of that.

Natsu sighed. "All right. Fine. I'll think about it."

" _We can do something together when you get back. Whatever you want. You know I'll wait up."_

A grin finally found its way back onto Natsu's face at that, although it didn't quite manage to reach his eyes. "Yeah, well, make sure you don't forget to eat a bit of something too."

" _I will."_

.

Zeref ended the call and spent a moment looking at the blank screen of his phone before setting it down once more next to his laptop. In all honesty, Koji Ishikawa was a good man, which was probably why he disliked them the way he did. It wasn't _them_ he disliked exactly so much as what they represented. Zeref could understand the sentiment. He didn't particularly like himself either, although he would never allow anyone to speak badly of Natsu.

"You're eating dinner alone then," Aizawa said, glancing up from the folder in his hands.

"It looks like it." Zeref shrugged. "I'm sure I can ask someone to bring me something from the kitchens."

"I could get takeout for you or something," All Might offered, rising to his feet and stretching. "We've got a faculty meeting later, so I was planning on eating here anyway. Apparently, a few of them have experienced those hallucinations we discussed."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Nothing in particular. Is there something you want?"

"Maybe a pork cutlet sandwich?"

All Might raised his eyebrows at that. "You mean from a convenience store? You sure you don't want something better?"

"I know they're unhealthy, but I'm really quite fond of them."

"Well, okay then. I'll be back in a few minutes. You want something too, Aizawa?"

"Sure, why not."

After the other pro hero had disappeared down the corridor, Aizawa looked at Zeref and quirked an eyebrow. "Quite fond of them, huh? And I suppose the fact that Natsu used to bring convenience store snacks with him to visit you has nothing to do with it."

"Well, perhaps not _nothing_ ," Zeref said, saving and closing a few of the files he had open on his computer. "What can I say? I'm sentimental."

Aizawa snorted. He'd never seen the point of being sentimental, but he knew that he was among the minority on that score.

"So have you been keeping up with those self defense practices?" he asked, jotting down a few last notes of his own before beginning to clear a space amidst the papers scattered across the tabletop. "That's not the kind of thing you can just learn once and expect to be able to use when you need it."

Zeref made a face at the reminder.

After the serial bomber case with the villain's robot explosives, Natsu had decided that his partner needed self defense lessons that went beyond his Quirk—to use if facing an enemy Dragon Slayer, for instance, or an animated robot or puppet. Before that, they had thought to work on making sure Zeref didn't leave himself vulnerable to long-distance attacks, but it hadn't occured to them to focus on what he could do if someone did manage to get close to him. Unfortunately, the only people Zeref could practice with were Dragon Slayers, and he had to practice with people _other_ than Natsu if they wanted him to be prepared to deal with different kinds of attackers.

For the six months of Zeref's intensive crash course in self defense, basic weaponry, and unarmed combat, Natsu had _hated_ each and every one of his fellow Dragon Slayers, even though he'd been the one to arrange the whole thing. Eventually, he'd been banned from watching these sparring sessions, and that just made the whole situation worse. Sting and Rogue had stopped dropping by for dinner, and Wendy had, with commendable speed, booked herself a job overseas that lasted until the boot camp was over.

"Mostly, I just practice with Natsu these days, although I still work with Sting and Rogue on occasion," Zeref said. "Now and then. When Natsu's out with the fire department and I have the time for a long, hot bath. I tried some rather fragrant bath soaps for awhile to see if it would help with the scent issue, but they just made him more irritable. Anyway, Natsu kept throwing them out. I think it's a Dragon Slayer thing. Levy told me her husband's the same way with her. She was quite annoyed about it. Seems some rather expensive perfumes her friends gave her kept ending up in the trash."

"I see. That would be the librarian you told me about? From that Slayers ping pong tournament you guys put together?"

Which Aizawa had been invited to but hadn't attended. It was way too much trouble.

"That's right. She's quite good at recommending books."

And she'd been very understanding about their situation too. Zeref suspected that her husband resented—just a little bit—being forced to deliver books so often between the skyscraper apartment and the library where she worked, but Gajeel continued to do it with minimal grumbling because his wife had asked it of him. The couple was really rather sweet in their own way.

"Ever practice team battles?"

"Don't remind me." Zeref grimaced. "We tried to—once, against Sting and Rogue."

"And?"

"We've unanimously decided never to try it again. It started out all right, but then the fighting got more serious, Rogue managed to hit me, and Natsu got a bit homicidal. I think when I'm involved, it's too much like being out in the field. He has a difficult time differentiating between practice and the real thing, because he's trained himself to react on instinct in order to be fast enough when we really need it."

"I see."

"In any case, we've gotten quite a bit of experience with that on the job, so I don't think it's a problem. We also play some team sports when we can, although I have to admit, I wish sometimes that I could play with people who weren't all so... extreme. The Dragon Slayers wear me out, but I can't _not_ play because I'm the main reason they get together for these competitions. An afternoon with the lot of them, and I really just want to hide in a dark room for awhile where it's quiet and nobody's fighting about anything."

Aizawa snorted. Somehow, that did not surprise him.

Zeref shut his laptop, glanced out the window beside him at the darkening sky, and then looked at Aizawa.

"I... don't suppose you could tell me more about what going to school here was like?"

"For me or for Natsu?"

"Either. Both."

Aizawa sat back in his chair. "I don't think there's that much to tell. If you want to hear more school stories, you'd do better to attend one of your partner's class reunions."

Zeref dropped his gaze to the silvery top of his computer. It wasn't smooth enough to provide a clear reflection, but he could still make out a smudge of shadow on the cloudy surface.

"Natsu asked if I wanted to go to the last one, but... I would have felt awkward, having to sit away from everyone else. And I didn't want to make things uncomfortable for everyone, not to mention we'd have to make up some lie to explain why I had to keep my distance and why nobody ever sees me around."

Hmmm, well, Aizawa supposed he could see how all that would be inconvenient. Although he rather felt that Natsu would have wanted the other boy to go anyway, even if it meant telling a couple lies.

As though reading his mind, Zeref added, "Maybe next time."

Not that Aizawa was one to talk. He almost never went to those school reunions. It was far too much trouble.

The high school teacher glanced at the somewhat distant and wistful expression on Zeref's face then sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Well, let me think..."

.

By nightfall, Zeref was back in their current living quarters, reading through articles and reports while he waited for his partner to get back. The place wasn't as nice as their own apartment, but the school had tried its best and there was a certain coziness about the atmosphere. At least Zeref liked it, in no small part because when he left the windows open, he could hear birds chirping amidst the trees below. He opened their bedroom window at home sometimes too, but you didn't get a lot of twittering a hundred floors off the ground.

It was taking Natsu even longer than anticipated to get all the members of their team home. In addition to the fact that they all lived in different parts of the city, Izuku had asked to stop by a flower shop in Hosu to inform a friend of Jenny Mikaka's that she had been found and would be all right. Natsu had agreed to this despite his own hurry to get back to campus, because it was important to be considerate—to remember to care about the feelings of everyone affected. It was something that set apart humans from monsters, and they worked hard not to cross that line.

At times, it was rather a lot like being a tightrope walker.

Zeref looked up from the screen of his laptop the moment he heard the door open.

"Get your jacket. We're going out."

Zeref blinked, startled. "Where to?"

"The beach."

That was... unexpected.

"But... aren't there generally a lot of people at the beach?" Zeref asked, although he was already reaching for his coat.

"At," Natsu glanced at the clock, "eleven at night? Not likely. Besides, Midoriya told me that people don't visit this beach much. It used to get a lot of trash and debris from illegal dumping of waste, but Midoriya cleaned the place up while he was training with All Might. People are only just getting used to it being nice again."

Out of the corner of his eye, Zeref examined the hard expression on his partner's face. Without any more protest, he slipped his coat over his shoulders and moved to turn off his computer. If Natsu wanted the two of them to go out together tonight, then he would go. The Dragon Slayer was obviously feeling restless.

It wasn't really about going anywhere so much as it was about being _able_ to go somewhere together if they so chose.

They left the U.A. campus on foot and took the shuttle a few stops to their destination. In the shuttle compartment, Zeref sat tucked against his partner's side with his eyes closed, focusing on the sound of the shuttle rushing along its rails and the feel of the cool air moving in and out of his lungs. They got off with several other passengers on a brightly lit platform and made their way through the streets, just two people among many with no sign that they were any more unusual than any of the other individuals treading the sidewalk. Now and then, Natsu would slow or pull his partner down a side street, steering clear of the main centers of the city's nightlife. Sometimes, they stepped into a convenience store to avoid knots of young men and women on their way to and from a theatre or nightclub. For Zeref, they were like people from another world, so alien from his own that he couldn't even begin to comprehend the lives that they lived.

Well, there was that one time they'd gone to the movie theatre, he supposed. Let's see, when had that been? Not that long after Natsu had introduced him to Sting and Rogue, if he remembered correctly. It had been one of a string of attempts at normalcy that Zeref looked back upon now with some amusement. They had reserved all the seats directly around them just to be safe, and then Zeref had fallen asleep halfway through the film when the popcorn ran out.

" _What kind of person falls asleep in the middle of the fight scenes?" Natsu asked, half amused and half incredulous._

 _Zeref stifled a yawn. "The kind of person who wishes there was more plot. More dialogue would have been nice too. Besides, I watch all of_ you _fight all the time."_

" _He has a point,' Rogue said. "Perhaps we should have gone with the detective story."_

 _The four of them lingered in their seats while they waited for the room to empty of other patrons before they started to make their own way out._

 _Sting made a face. "Well, it wasn't that great of an action flick anyway. I have no idea why it's so popular right now."_

 _Zeref glanced down at the empty paper bag Natsu had placed on the floor by their feet._

" _The popcorn was good." He paused, considering, then amended, "Or perhaps I should say that the butter was good, and the popcorn just helped bring that out."_

That one time had been fun, but Zeref hadn't wanted to go again. It didn't matter if the movie was better. He just didn't really like the feeling of being in a windowless room in the dark, even if he wasn't alone anymore.

As Natsu had predicted, the beach was deserted. They chose a spot above the tide line and settled down, their gazes drifting towards the ocean, the seemingly endless expanse of water appearing black in the moonlight. It had been a hot day, and the sand was still slightly warm.

Zeref hadn't been to a beach since he was in kindergarten. He recalled a class trip to the beach back then, and building sandcastles with his classmates that Natsu had ultimately destroyed with great enthusiasm. It felt surreal. To think that they had ever been that carefree.

For a long time, they just sat together and listened to the lapping of the waves upon the shore. There was something peaceful about that sound, like somehow, the whisper of the water washing across the sand could carry away any unhappy memories.

Natsu gathered the other boy into his arms and buried his nose in the mess of disheveled, black hair.

"You know, if we hadn't met Aizawa and he hadn't agreed to help us... If Dad hadn't suggested to me that I might be able to bargain with the authorities over you, because really, they were all just scared of what could happen... I was planning to break into the Facility and steal you away."

"Were you?"

Zeref wasn't entirely surprised. It was the sort of plan an angry, hotheaded teenager might come up with.

"And what would we have done after that?"

Natsu shrugged. "I don't know. I figured we'd find somewhere to hide out and work things out from there."

And they probably would have been branded as criminals and spent the rest of their lives fighting for the freedom that they had.

Zeref wondered what kind of people they would have become. Natsu's anger could have become spite. His own despair could have become resentment. Hmmm, they probably wouldn't have turned out to be very nice people.

Zeref turned his head to rest his cheek against Natsu's chest, nuzzling against the lapel of his partner's jacket. Natsu smelled like summer and like smoke, and it made Zeref think of campfires out in the woods even though he'd never been camping.

As it were, they had both learned to be ruthless in order to protect themselves and each other. That probably wouldn't have changed. They did what they had to in order to keep on living as much of their lives as they could in their own way. Living and doing things their own way was important to them.

"Hey," Natsu said suddenly, "what would you have wanted to be? If your Quirk hadn't gotten in the way, I mean."

"Hmmm? Why do you ask?"

"I just want to know."

Zeref contemplated the question. He hadn't seriously thought about professions and careers since he was seven.

"Teaching at a university might have been nice," he said finally. "Maybe write a few books, go to conferences and conventions. Levy's job would have been nice too, working in a library and organizing events to teach people about important things. We could have traveled more, gone to see what some other parts of the world are like these days." He fell silent then asked, "What about you?"

"Me? I guess I probably would have gone pro. I mean, I wouldn't have had any reason to hate the idea so much."

 _If things had been different._

Honestly, Zeref didn't see much point in speculating about such things, not when it just made him feel a little wistful and a little sad. It wasn't like he was unhappy with the way things were now. But then, perhaps sometimes, it was nice just to imagine it for a moment.

Zeref closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of the breeze and the warmth of the person next to him. Yes, he definitely liked being outside. He'd go for the beach rather than the movie theatre any day—provided they had the shore to themselves.

"Natsu, when this is over, do you think we could go camping? We can invite Sting and Rogue, if they're not busy with work. And your father, if he wants to come."

"Nah, Dad's still overseas. I don't think he'll be back for awhile with all the work he's got on his plate."

"That's a pity."

They hadn't seen the older Fire Dragon Slayer since last Christmas. After all, his son was an adult now, and even back when Natsu had been a child, Igneal had always had a "let him do whatever he wants and learn from his own mistakes" style of parenting. He still came by to visit them now and then, but mostly only on special occasions.

"Camping, huh?" Natsu considered. "Sure, why not? We can start checking out campsites for someplace suitable."

They probably wouldn't be allowed to go camping anywhere with lots of old and valuable trees or rare and valuable flowers, but still, Natsu was sure they could find somewhere. Zeref would probably enjoy hiking too. He tended to like most activities that got him outdoors as long as lots of other people weren't part of the equation. Hmmm, Natsu wasn't sure about inviting anyone else along though. Maybe he'd feel differently when they actually got around to planning the trip, but right at this moment, the thought of additional company was less than welcome.

The body in his arms was warm and pliant, and Natsu would have liked to just ease his partner down onto the cooling sand with the stars overhead and the sound of the waves in their ears—but no. That was a bad idea for any number of reasons.

As though reading his mind, Zeref murmured into Natsu's jacket, "Let's go back."

Natsu took a moment longer to look out across the dark water and listen to the rasping of the waves. Then he stood and helped Zeref up with him, caught the boy's mouth in a brief, hard kiss, and started back up the sand.

When they got back, Natsu would make sure Zeref was unable to think of anyone or anything else but him for the rest of the night. And it wouldn't matter that they were in an office turned living apartment instead of a quiet beach under a star-spangled sky, because they'd be together and life was what you made of it.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

.


	7. Of Class Picnics and Memories

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

 **CHAPTER WARNINGS: none**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **7\. Of Class Picnics and Memories**

" _Meddling when you don't technically have to is the essence of being a hero."_

 _~ All Might, My Hero Academia, season 2 episode 11_

Sometimes, Aizawa wondered at his own decision to become a teacher when the position had been offered to him. He didn't particularly like kids even if he didn't particularly dislike them either, and he'd been content focusing on his hero work and ignoring public opinion and its lack of interest in him. He knew he held rather strict views concerning the suitability of different students to the profession, and there were plenty of heroes out there that he privately thought should never have been allowed into the business. Still... he had to admit that there was something rewarding about being a teacher. He could say for certain that any student who made it through his class was truly prepared for the challenges that they might face in the field, and now and then, a student came along who far surpassed his expectations and even managed to surprise him.

Izuku Midoriya was one of these.

The teenager was in the school kitchens when Aizawa went down that morning for a mug of fresh coffee.

"You're here very early," the teacher remarked. "Did anyone come with you?"

Izuku shook his head. "We agreed to meet here at the school in about half an hour."

The "no walking about outside alone" injunction had been relaxed somewhat now that they had a clearer idea of what they were dealing with. Still, all of them had been warned to keep an eye out for any irregularities or unexpected occurrences around them—not to mention any signs of fog. Should they spot any, they were to take notes and, in Aizawa's words, refrain from doing anything stupid.

"We had some plans that I wanted to run by you," Izuku added, a plate of pancakes in his hands.

Aizawa took the pot from the coffeemaker and refilled his mug. Around them, the kitchen staff clinked and clattered about their work, making sure everyone on campus had something to eat.

"Which are?"

"Well, a few of us thought we'd go for a picnic at the Emerald Sea Park."

The name rang a bell, and Aizawa said, "The one that recently purchase several of the trees sold by Kiki's Nursery."

Izuku nodded, looking a little sheepish. "We thought we could all help with checking the trees, and have a picnic at the same time. I mean, we wouldn't stand out if we just seemed like a group of students enjoying their summer break, so I don't think we'll alarm anyone."

His homeroom teacher considered this. It wasn't a bad plan.

"I don't see any problems with that," he said. "Just don't let your guards down. All considered, a park's probably not an advantageous place to be."

When the boy continued to hesitate without making any moves to leave, Aizawa raised his eyebrows.

"Is there something else?"

"Um, yes actually. I was wondering if it would be okay to ask Natsu and Zeref if they want to come with us. They almost always seem to be working, and I know Zeref doesn't get out much..."

He trailed off and looked at Aizawa.

The high school teacher returned his attention to his coffee and took a sip before answering. "I think they'd appreciate the invitation, although I can't predict whether they'll accept."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Izuku nod.

"I thought as much. I just wanted to know if it was okay to ask—because of... you know..."

"They'll tell you if it's not."

"Of course."

After Izuku had gone, Aizawa took a sip of his coffee and glanced at the doorway through which he had disappeared. So many students came to this school sharing the same dream, and it was interesting sometimes to step back and really think about how different they all were—how differently they might turn out.

.

Zeref cracked one eye open and glanced at the nightstand, but there weren't any clocks upon it and he couldn't remember where he'd left his cell phone. The strength of the sunlight filtering through the blinds suggested that it was fairly late in the morning, which made sense considering how late it had been when they'd gone to sleep.

Well, it wasn't like they had any appointments to keep this morning. Natsu was still waiting for that search warrant, and overall, they'd made fairly decent progress.

Carefully, Zeref turned around so he could look at his partner's face, the bedcovers rustling with the movement. Natsu seemed much more relaxed than he had been when he'd returned home the night before, and Zeref was glad for that.

There was no one and nothing in the world more important to him than Natsu. It was probably good that he knew this about himself, but sometimes, Zeref had to acknowledge—however reluctantly—that it was dangerous too. There was very little he would not do for Natsu if the Dragon Slayer asked it of him, and probably nothing he wouldn't do to ensure the wild-haired young man's happiness and wellbeing.

Zeref closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, then let the breath out in a long, measured exhale. Right, now was not the time to contemplate such serious matters. It would only get him down if he dwelled on it, and Zeref had learned a long time ago that looking after his own wellbeing the best he could was important to the wellbeing of people like Natsu who cared about him. Well, actually, Natsu had yelled at him about it at some point, but that was another story.

Zeref blinked open his eyes again when a hand cupped the side of his face. Natsu studied him in silence until a rather bemused Zeref said, "We're missing breakfast."

"We'll get brunch."

There was another long moment of stillness in which Zeref wondered what his partner was thinking about. Natsu wasn't nearly as easy to read these days as he had been when they were children. It was easy for Zeref to pick up on his emotions, but predicting his thoughts was much more difficult—especially in moments like these when the differences between the Natsu he remembered from their childhood and the Natsu who had returned for him six years ago were most pronounced. Zeref had just made up his mind to ask when there was a hesitant knock on the door in the other room. It was followed by a brief pause, an exchange of nervous whispers, then another few knocks—bolder this time.

Natsu sighed and grumbled, "It sounds like half the class is out there. I thought I warned them to call first."

"What do you think they want?"

"Don't know. Guess we'd better find out. Damn, where's my phone? Do you have yours?"

"Sorry. I've been trying to remember where I left it. I think it might be on the living room table with my computer."

"Well, that doesn't do us much good."

Natsu sat up and surveyed the room, trying to remember where he'd left his own cell phone the night before. Jacket pocket maybe? Honestly, he'd had rather a lot more interesting things on his mind.

Zeref stifled a yawn and sat up too. "Perhaps we should consider spraying our cell phones with perfume in the future. They would be much easier to locate that way."

Natsu wrinkled his nose. "Tell me you're joking. There's no way we're carrying around cell phones that smell like flowers or whatever."

Zeref chuckled. "I don't think I would mind terribly, but I suppose I'm not the one with the extra keen sense of smell."

Natsu grunted. That was only one of his _many_ objections.

They found Natsu's phone in his jacket pocket and called Izuku. It was probably better not to answer the door looking like they'd just rolled out of bed. It wasn't professional.

"There's a reason I told you all to call first, you know," Natsu said the moment the high school student picked up.

"Er, yeah, sorry. It's just that my friends and I were thinking..."

The two young men listened to his explanation on speakerphone and exchanged slightly bemused looks. A picnic, huh?

Natsu caught his partner's gaze and quirked an eyebrow.

Zeref thought for a moment, shrugged, and nodded.

"Sure," Natsu said. "We've got somewhere we've got to go first, but we'll meet you there afterwards."

After they ended the call, Zeref asked, "Where do we have to go?"

"The street where that Iida kid saw Jenny Mikaka."

Or rather, the illusion of Jenny Mikaka.

.

Frankly, Natsu didn't think they would find anything. These criminals didn't seem to be the sloppy sort. Arrogant, yes, but not foolish. Still, it would be careless of them not to check the area out.

Zeref didn't normally wander the city streets this late in the morning with the sidewalks already growing busy, but the dark-haired boy was good at picking up on things that Natsu missed. Besides, they'd been spending rather a lot of time apart lately. That was often the case on jobs like this, since Natsu generally handled most of the legwork while his partner focused on sorting and piecing together information. But too much of that tended to make the Dragon Slayer too restless and Zeref too high-strung to be very effective at their work. They'd learned to take breaks—and to balance the amount of work they did alone and what they were able to do together.

"It seems like a perfectly ordinary street," Zeref said, looking around at the numerous apartment buildings and the scattering of small shops. "Iida said it was deserted when he saw her?"

"Or he just couldn't see any of the other people," Natsu replied.

"Hmmm. Although if that were the case, I would have expected him to bump into someone when he ran. He was the speedy one, yes? I doubt it would have been easy for people to get out of his way. If we know the approximate time, I suppose we could ask around the shops to see if anyone saw anything."

"Yeah, somehow, I don't think the people in these shops are going to be much help."

Confused, Zeref followed the direction of his partner's gaze. There was a convenience store, but that was currently closed for renovation. Aside from that, there was a small art gallery and a restaurant... A restaurant that Zeref recognized. Sting and Rogue had booked them a reservation for dinner there once as a Christmas present, and... Well, Zeref assumed they'd meant well, although Natsu was inclined to disagree.

" _If they sent us here because they thought it would be funny..." Natsu trailed off and cracked his knuckles, looking at the pink and cutesy decorations upon the walls and tables. Hearts were a major theme, and all the tables were set up to serve only two._

" _I believe they said they'd heard this was a popular place for couples. I don't think they stopped to consider the other implications of this," Zeref said, turning a page in the menu and puzzling over the fancy, curly writing. It was... practically illegible. And did the paper smell like roses? That seemed rather excessive._

" _We are so getting them back for this."_

" _Please stop scowling, Natsu. Everyone's giving us strange looks."_

" _They were already giving us strange looks," Natsu retorted. He glared at the handful of other customers that weren't too lost in each other to notice the new arrivals until they looked away._

 _Then there were the two waitresses who kept glancing over at them and giggling. When Natsu glowered at them, they just whispered to one another and giggled more._

 _Zeref lifted his menu higher to hide his face and tried to ignore them. This was just... awkward. He hated being stared at, and in a place like this, it was inevitable that they stood out. Strange really, considering how weird some people's Quirks made them look in this day and age. Part of him was really starting to wish they could just leave, but that would look even more odd. No one else walked in and sat down only to leave again without placing an order. Best if they just ordered and ate as quickly as they could._

When the food arrived, however, both of them had been suitably impressed, so the escapade hadn't been a total disaster. All the same, they hadn't lingered. Nor had they explained to the staff why the flowers on their table had mysteriously died during the course of their meal, and they just hoped that the waiters and waitresses thought they'd forgotten to exchange the old blossoms for fresh ones.

Right. Zeref shook his head and looked away from the restaurant. Most of its occupants would have been too engrossed in their dining companions to notice anything happening out on the street.

Still, Zeref had to wonder...

"Natsu, were those white flowers always there in front of that shop?"

"Uh, don't know. Don't people replace those things all the time?"

"Hmmm, maybe. I thought the flowers were red and pink before."

"Problem?"

"Not really, I suppose. It just seems different is all. I don't think I've ever seen flowers like that before."

Not that he'd ever made a study of such things. Maybe he should start now, everything considered.

"Might as well get a record of it in case it turns out to matter," Natsu said, taking out his phone to do just that. "Shall we get going?"

With one last glance around the street, Zeref sighed and nodded. "I suppose so."

"We'll have to take a bus. You okay with that?"

Zeref winced. "It's too far to walk, isn't it?"

"Yeah, unless you want to get there tomorrow. If the bus turns out to be too crowded, we'll figure something else out."

"I suppose. Do you mind if we stop by a bookstore first?"

"Of course not," Natsu said as they started down the street. "I'm sure I saw one on our way here. Wouldn't it be easier just to get a couple digital books instead though? Less to carry."

"I like holding an actual book. It just feels more real to me."

Natsu chuckled. "You sound like my classmate's grandmother."

"That's very specific."

"Yeah, well, you remember those books I got you second year of high school?"

"The ones you said your friends recommended?"

"Yeah, those. It was actually one of their grandmother's recommendations. We were at her house for a school project, and I noticed she had a huge collection of books. Since she obviously read a lot, I figured she'd have good suggestions."

It was Zeref's turn to chuckle. "You didn't actually read what you gave me, did you?"

"No, I was way too busy with what I had to read for school. She assured me they weren't dark or anything, and they had good reviews." Natsu eyed him suspiciously. "Why? Did I give you something weird and you didn't tell me?"

"Oh no, they were very... sweet."

They paused to wait for a traffic light, and Natsu turned to frown at him. "What's _that_ mean?"

There was a definite spark of amusement in his partner's eyes when he replied, "You gave me half a dozen romance novels."

"..."

"I didn't mind," Zeref added at the expression on the Dragon Slayer's face. "It was certainly different from anything I'd read before. They weren't anything bad, just... simple and sweet. Quite nice, actually. I still have them if you want to know what I mean. They're on the bookshelf in the living room."

"Yeah, I think I'll pass," Natsu muttered. "Unless you really want to read them to me or something."

His companion looked thoughtful. "Maybe I will. I actually quite liked them. They reminded me of us."

"...You're joking."

"Not at all."

The walk light turned green, and they started across the crosswalk.

.

Emerald Sea Park looked very much like its name suggested with a large, grassy field dotted with clusters of trees. They weren't the only people who had gotten it into their heads to have a picnic. There were other groups of students like them along with a handful of families scattered across the verdant green expanse.

"I got these from the support class this morning," Todoroki announced, opening his school bag and distributing its contents amongst the other students who had made it to the picnic. "They're designed to help detect a heartbeat through several layers of wood. Make sure you check all along the tree trunk, but don't be too obvious when you use them. We don't want civilians coming over and asking questions."

Ochaco held up the silver instrument, which looked a little like a cross between a doctor's stethoscope and a set of earphones. "Wow, they work fast, don't they?"

"We need to go over every tree in this park, correct?" Iida adjusted his glasses and turned to survey the park in question. "It's a pretty big place. I think it would be most efficient if we divide up the area and assign everyone into teams."

"Wait," Momo interjected, "why can't we just ask the park authorities for a list of where the newer trees were planted? For that matter, if it wasn't that long ago, we _should_ be able to tell from the dirt which ones are more recent."

Todoroki took one of the earphone-like devices for himself and set the rest next to the picnic offerings. "Theoretically, yes. But the nursery staff oversaw all the work in this park, so we shouldn't rule out the trees that were already here."

"I still can't believe you found that girl in a tree."

There was a chorus of agreement, then, "Hey, do you guys mind if we eat first?"

"Seconded! Some of the food's getting cold."

As her classmates crowded around the food, Ochaco wandered over to the other end of the picnic table where Izuku was poring over his notebook.

"Don't you want to get something to eat too, Deku?"

"Huh?" He glanced up, startled. "Oh, yeah, um, in a minute."

"So what are you working on?" she asked, peering over his shoulder at his notes.

Izuku sighed. "Now that we know what our opponents' abilities are, more or less, I'm trying to figure out how we can counter them. It's hard though. I mean, the woman with the plant manipulation Quirk has to be pretty powerful, but at least her powers are straightforward. But the other one, if we can't trust our own senses—although the mist could be a good clue, assuming we'll be able to see it every time..."

He trailed off into mutters that Ochaco didn't bother trying to decipher. If they couldn't trust their own senses... That certainly made things tricky.

"Deku," she started, but stopped when she spotted two figures crossing the grass towards them. She recognized the wild-haired one in the lead from the yearbook and news clippings. "Oh, they're here. I was starting to wonder if they'd changed their minds."

"Is that the guy Mr. Aizawa warned us about?" Kaminari asked, eyeing the dark-haired figure trailing behind the first. "Guess we should go say hi."

"Wait!" Izuku practically flew off the picnic bench to intercept him at the same time Todoroki reached out to grab the back of the blond boy's jacket.

"Have you already forgotten what Mr. Aizawa told us?" Todoroki demanded. "Don't be stupid."

Kaminari held up both his hands. "Okay, okay, I _won't_ say hi. Seriously though, what's the deal?"

"It's like Mr. Aizawa said," Izuku explained. "You might die. I mean, you might _not_ die—it kind of depends on how he's feeling today—but do you really want to take that chance?"

"Uh, so Mr. Aizawa wasn't exaggerating?"

"No," Todoroki said, letting go of him. "And you'd better not forget it."

When Natsu and Zeref reached them, the first thing they did was select one of the largest picnic blankets that had been brought and spread it out across a patch of grass a decent distance away from the food table. Zeref sat himself exactly in the middle of it.

"Please stay off the blanket," he informed Izuku's puzzled classmates. "It's nothing personal, just for your own safety."

This said, he took a book out of a beautifully printed paper bag and flipped it open to the first page. It didn't take any particular perceptiveness to see the questions bubbling amongst the students, but the book discouraged further inquiries. Some of the kids managed to quash their curiosity in favor of grabbing a bite to eat, but a few others lingered on the edges of the blanket, possibly wondering if it was okay to talk to him. Natsu kept one eye on them as he went over to drop off the paper plates and utensils they'd brought, snagging two sets for himself and his partner while he was at it.

"Looks like you guys have a good amount of food here," he observed. "I was wondering if we should have brought a dish or two ourselves, but I guess not."

"As our class rep, I made sure I brought enough for everyone, just in case," Iida told him, sounding extremely proud of himself.

"Maybe," Ochaco said, looking over the array with a paper plate in her own hands. "But you only brought sandwiches... And they're all the same kind of sandwich... Couldn't you have gotten a few different flavors? Like at least a meat and a vegetarian?"

Her bespectacled classmate coughed and looked away. "I would have, but everything else was sold out."

"Well, doesn't matter to me," Natsu said, helping himself to two sandwiches before moving on to the homemade pasta and other dishes. "All food's good, as long as there's plenty of it."

Back on the picnic blanket, Zeref lifted his gaze momentarily from his book to look at the kids still watching him.

"Please don't stare. You're making me uncomfortable."

There was a scattering of embarrassed apologies.

"You may ask questions, if you like," he added. "But I cannot promise to answer them."

"So it's true that we might die if we get too close to you?"

"Yes."

"Is that, like, part of your powers or something."

"You could say that."

"Wow, that's pretty crazy."

"I suppose it is."

"Kind of inconvenient though."

"Very."

While the kids stewed over this, Zeref returned to his book. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched the shifting expressions on their faces. He recognized most of them in a passing way, having gone through their profiles before going to U.A. and having watched that year's Sports Festival with Natsu on TV. He could admit to being a little bit curious, but at the same time, he felt keenly how different they were from him.

"I got a bit of everything," Natsu announced, returning with the food. "Just eat whatever you want, and I'll polish off the rest."

Neither of them were especially picky eaters.

Seeing that they were starting in on their lunch, the remaining students wandered towards the picnic table as well to get their own food before choosing a spot on the grass to enjoy it. One knot of students had formed around Momo, who had talked Iida into helping everyone prepare for the search to come. She'd given him something that resembled a rather ugly breastplate made from a slab of wood that looked as though someone had hacked it out of a tree with an axe. While the class rep stood wearing the breastplate, his classmates tried out the new earphone-like devices to familiarize themselves with what a human heartbeat might sound like through layers of wood and bark.

Zeref set his book aside and nodded towards the students. "They're quite energetic, aren't they?"

Natsu shrugged. "I think that's fairly typical for high school classes, especially high school classes in hero training programs."

"Mr. Aizawa seems a little like the odd one out."

Natsu laughed. "He does, doesn't he? Guess it takes all kinds. I wonder what he was like in high school."

Zeref considered this, nibbling on a turkey sandwich while he thought.

"Probably not that different from how he is now," he said. He sighed, returning his gaze to the groups of chatting students. "Did your class ever do things like class picnics? I don't remember you ever saying."

The question sounded a little wistful, and Natsu looked away from him to the uneven, city skyline. "Yeah, we did. I guess I felt kind of bad telling you about stuff like that after awhile, since you couldn't go."

Zeref lowered his sandwich and turned his head towards him, noting the set of his partner's jaw and the downward tilt of his lips.

"I never begrudged you that, you know," Zeref said quietly. "Although I did envy your classmates for having that time with you. I _do_ wish I could have done some of those things, gone to school with everyone, but..."

He trailed off, unsure how to articulate his feelings on the matter. He'd had lots of time to think about it since being taken away from home. Sure, it was a wish, but only the kind of wish you had in passing that you knew would never come true and really wasn't that important in the long run.

Finally, Zeref settled for saying, "I like hearing about the things you did and what your classmates' lives were like. I'm glad that you were able to have some fun in high school. It doesn't make me feel left out."

The Dragon Slayer glanced sidelong at him, searching his face. "Are you sure?"

His partner smiled, a soft sort of smile that Natsu knew was just for him.

"Of course I'm sure. And anyway, we're here now, right? And we're together. I would very much like to hear more stories."

The Dragon Slayer inspected him for awhile longer, then looked away. "Well, all right then. Let me think."

As he sorted back through his high school memories, he allowed himself a moment to imagine what it might have been like if Zeref had been able to attend classes with him. No doubt he would have been the kind of student that everyone else took their exam questions to, if they could find the courage to talk to him anyway. Zeref wasn't always the most approachable person. Honestly, it was all a little difficult to picture, although Natsu rather thought... that it would have been nice.

.

Izuku was among the first to smell the smoke, and for a horrified moment, he thought it was the trees in the park that were on fire. He jerked his head up to look around and almost fell off the tree branch he was crouching on. He grabbed the branch above him to steady himself and called over to Ochaco, who was inspecting one of the neighboring trees.

"Hey, do you smell that?"

"Huh? Smell what?" She paused and sniffed, then frowned. "Is that... barbeque smoke?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't really smell like barbeque smoke."

It was too acrid. Too strong.

Carefully standing up on his branch, Izuku rested his hand on the trunk and peered around at the buildings around the park.

 _Everything seems all right_ , he thought. But then the sirens began to blare, and, following the sound, he spotted a billow of black smoke rising into the sky in the distance.

He wondered what happened.

"Hey, don't those two look kind of familiar?"

"Huh?"

Pulling his attention bak to the park, Izuku turned to follow the direction of Ochaco's gaze. He saw what she was talking about right away. There were two people jogging across the grass towards the picnic area their class had appropriated. Wait, what? Izuku glanced quickly towards the picnic blanket where Zeref and Natsu were sitting, fully expecting the latter to get up and intercept them. Instead, Natsu waved, and was that actually a smile on Zeref's face? Izuku didn't think he'd seen Zeref smile yet. Looking back at the newcomers, Izuku gave himself a mental kick. Of course!

"They're both Dragon Slayers," he said aloud. "I think they graduated from U.A. two years ago. They're pretty famous, because they actually started their own hero agency right out of school. That's practically unheard of. Most graduates start off with sidekick positions in larger agencies and make their way up."

"Really?"

"I've heard of them," Iida said from where he stood on the ground, the earphone-like contraption currently dangling forgotten in his hands. "If I remember correctly, the light-haired one is Sting, and the dark-haired one is Rogue. They earned a name for themselves by being one of the best tag teams around."

"You said they were Dragon Slayers," Ochaco repeated, glancing towards Izuku. "Does that mean they're like Natsu?"

"That's right, but their elements are different—I think." Izuku paused and frowned. "Actually, now that I think about it, I don't remember if Natsu ever told us what he can do. I think the news articles said something about fire."

While the students watched, the two newcomers stopped by the picnic blanket. A few words were exchanged, and then Natsu stood up.

On the other side of the park, Rogue was saying, "We heard the fire's pretty serious. We were just heading over when we saw you. They could probably use your help."

Natsu glanced towards the smoke, frowning. "Yeah, but we're supposed to be watching them. And I can't leave Zeref here by himself."

"I'll stay," Sting volunteered. "Rogue can help transport any wounded with his shadow abilities, and anyway, I'm better with people."

Natsu considered this then looked down at his partner. "What do you think?"

"Go on," Zeref said. "Just be careful and get back soon, okay?"

Sting grabbed an extra sandwich from the picnic table before dropping down on a corner of the picnic blanket. Zeref watched his partner leave, sighed a little, then surveyed the park once more to check on the locations of their charges. Several of them had stopped to watch them, their curiosity piqued by the arrival of two, relatively new pro heroes. When Zeref caught their eyes, however, they hurriedly went back to their trees.

"Looks like I'll be keeping you company for awhile," Sting said, unwrapping the sandwich and taking a bite of it. "Sorry if we spoiled your afternoon."

Zeref shook his head. "No need. I think it's good for him to do rescue work, as long as he's not away for _too_ long. It's more constructive than our other work."

"More constructive, huh? I guess I can see that." Sting glanced over at the trees too, counting the students from what he remembered of them from the last U.A. Sports Festival. "I know it's only been two years, but it still feels like forever since we graduated."

"Natsu says he doesn't miss it. Do you?"

Sting considered the question seriously. "Don't know really. We had some fun times, and I think the school did a good job teaching us. More advice on managing public relations and publicity would have been helpful though. Rogue and I had a tough time with that when we were just starting out, especially since we chose a less conventional career path."

Zeref shook his head. "I'm glad we don't have to think about publicity. I would hate my career to be a popularity contest."

Sting laughed. "I used to think of it as a necessary evil."

"But not now?"

"Now I think of it as an important part of the job. Think about it this way. You have people like All Might that everyone knows about, right? And the fact that he's popular and well liked is part of what allows him to be such an effective hero. Our reputations indirectly influence the public's sense of security."

Zeref turned this thought over in his mind then shook his head. It was reasonable, but he still thought it sounded like a major hassle. As far as he was concerned, Aizawa had the right idea about publicity.

Returning his attention to the students, Zeref asked, "Do you want to go greet them? It looks like they're dying to speak with you."

"I'm sure they'll drop by if they want to talk. Besides, when we're with you, we're supposed to keep a low profile."

Ah, right.

Keep a low profile. Not always the easiest thing for a pro hero to do. They spent so much time cultivating their image. They were far too recognizable, more often than not, because being recognizable was part of their career. Actually, it was all kind of amusing, since that meant they often had to dress very differently when they were acting as Zeref's guard. He would never forget the first time Sting and Rogue had showed up to accompany him on a job—in disguise. Zeref had refused to let them through the door, and Natsu had laughed so hard he couldn't stand up straight.

.

For the past few weeks since the end of the Sports Festival, Todoroki had been visiting his mother at the hospital on weekends. When he and the others had gone to Kiki's Nursery, he'd ended up buying a collection of colorful carnations in a green glass vase for her—mostly so a particularly persistent shop assistant would stop asking him uncomfortable questions.

Maybe that was why he noticed the flowers.

They were white and reminded him of bells, which wouldn't have been that strange except that the petals were slightly feathery along their edges. Was that... normal? He had no idea. So why did...? The realization hit him just as a shout of fear rang through the air, shattering the peace of the park.

"Fire!"

Todoroki spun towards the source of the cry, eyes going wide at the sight of flames beginning to lick through the branches of a tree near the edge of the park. Could sparks have gotten blown all the way over here from the fire down the street? But he didn't have time to wonder about that right now. There was something wrong with the way this fire was spreading. It was moving way too fast.

The flowers—no way, but that was... Right, he should know better in this day and age than to think that anything was impossible.

But that meant—

Cursing under his breath, Todoroki ran towards the cluster of trees where he'd seen the majority of the white-flowering vines, shouting at his classmates as he went. Some of them had already broken away from the group to help with evacuating civilians while others had headed straight towards the fire to try and contain it. Todoroki arrived at the grove in question steps before the fire and threw up a wall of ice around it to try and stave off the blaze as long as possible—not too close to the trees though, for fear that the extreme contrast in temperature would cause more problems than it solved.

"You found something?" Izuku asked the moment he and Kyoka joined him.

Todoroki answered briskly, his hands busy ripping the long vines with their feathery, white flowers off the tree trunks and branches. "Hurry, I think we'll find something here."

"Why here?" Izuku asked even as he put on his earphones and ran to the nearest tree.

"These weird flowers, I'm positive they were around that other tree too," Todoroki explained. He tugged uselessly at a vine wound tightly around a branch. The plants were incredibly tough for their delicate appearance, and he resorted at last to freezing parts of them with his ice to make them more brittle and snapping them apart. "And the fire, it's burning more quickly through the trees where these are growing. Almost like these vines are guiding it."

The shorter boy's eyes widened, but before either of them could say more, Kyoka let out an exclamation. "Over here!"

Back at the picnic blanket, both Zeref and Sting had gotten to their feet.

Zeref bit his lower lip, his gaze flicking from the chaos to the smoke in the distance. The noise should have been intense and Sting was saying something to him, but in his mind, everything was quiet as he wavered over what to do. He always felt somewhat useless when these kinds of emergencies happened. Usually, the best and only thing he could do for anyone was stay far away. But this—this was different.

The trees were burning.

They had come here looking for one of the missing students.

The trees were burning, and Natsu was at the other fire down the street.

A hand on his shoulder shook him out of his trance, and he refocused on the pale-haired Dragon Slayer standing with him. Somewhere close, the blare of sirens and screech of tires heralded the arrival of a fire truck.

"You need to focus here," Sting said—somewhat unnecessarily, although Zeref appreciated hearing the words. "I think they found something."

The question of what Zeref wanted to do remained unvoiced, but Zeref could read it on his face.

Quickly, he assessed his own state of mind, took a deep breath, and started towards the trees. "Let's go. There might be something we can do."

As he went, he pulled out his cell phone and texted Natsu. They were going to need an extremely skilled medical team on the scene as soon as possible.

.

The darkness around them receded, and Natsu carefully lowered the injured woman he'd been carrying to the ground. The paramedics on standby rushed over to see to her.

"That's the last of them," Natsu said.

"Thank you, both of you."

"It was no trouble," Rogue assured them. "We were glad to help."

Natsu took a step back and tugged the helmet he'd borrowed from the firefighting crew lower over his face. He wanted to get back to the park, but as a pro hero, Rogue couldn't exactly just vanish from the scene without a word. On the bright side, Rogue wasn't that talkative, and he knew they shouldn't drag things out.

Out of habit, Natsu surveyed the crowd and the people still passing by upon the street while he waited, taking note of what they were doing and their expressions. That was probably why he noticed the girl. She looked normal enough—long black hair, brown eyes—but she was acting strangely. Despite the fire still raging through the nearby building, she was shivering violently and hugging herself, staring around as though searching for someone or something. For some reason, none of the other people around her were paying her any attention. It was almost as though they didn't see her or notice her distress at all. He considered asking her if she was lost, but before he could approach her, he noticed something else.

It was difficult to pick it out from the thick smoke wafting from the blaze, but Natsu had been around burning buildings far too often not to recognize something irregular about the smoke. In fact, the faint, misty traces in the air close about her and permeating the rest of the street didn't seem like smoke at all. When some of it drifted too close to the flames, they seemed to dissipate completely so that, close to the fire, there was only true smoke.

Smoke...

Mist?

Natsu's eyes narrowed, and he scanned the area again, this time searching specifically for dark green hair. He found what he was looking for a second later, although most of the hair was being concealed by a muddy brown baseball hat. The man was standing outside a convenience store further down the street, talking with one of the police officers helping to direct traffic.

Natsu's gaze flicked from the panicking girl to Kimihara then back again. The kid took one step back then two.

Natsu moved back to Rogue and muttered, "If I start acting weird, transport me back here," before ducking through the crowd towards her. On impulse, he raised a hand to his face and summoned a bit of fire to keep the mist away from his nose and mouth. It seemed to be working. At least he didn't feel any different, and he could still see the girl.

Taking care to obscure his own features from the botanist—just in case the man was watching the girl—Natsu stopped next to her and put his free hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?"

The girl jumped and jerked her face up towards him, blinking a little dazedly. It took her a moment to focus on Natsu and then.

"I—what—" She stopped, took a deep breath, then asked, "Where did that monster go?"

"There was no monster," Natsu assured her. "You've been here the entire time. You looked scared. Are you feeling okay?"

"I—I think so. I was just on my way home."

Natsu nodded and took a step back. A quick glance told him that Kimihara was gone, as were the lingering traces of mist that had been mixed with the smoke.

Still, better safe than sorry.

"Do you have anyone you can call to help you home? You're looking a little pale."

The girl glanced at him a bit warily, but nodded after a moment. "I'll call my mom and see if she can pick me up."

Natsu nodded, told her to be careful, and went back to rejoin his companion.

"What was that about?" Rogue asked when he was back within earshot.

"Not sure. She looks a little familiar though. I wonder if I've seen her before somewhere."

Natsu made a mental note to look through their case files again later to see if there was some reason the girl had been targeted—assuming that was what had just happened. If that was indeed what had just happened, Kimihara was extremely bold and slightly stupid for making a move here with all these people around. Then again, with the chaos caused by the burning building, not to mention all the smoke already in the air, perhaps it wasn't as stupid as it could have been.

Was it planned, or had it been a spur of the moment decision with the smoke from the fire for cover?

"Should we head back?"

Natsu nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

More out of habit than anything, Natsu checked his phone as they left the scene of the fire and frowned at what he found.

"Hey, how far can you port someone?"

Rogue halted in his tracks and turned to look at him. "Quite a long way if it's not too many trips. Why?"

"We're going to need a really, really good doctor at the park."

.

The present members of class 1A gathered around the remains of the tree, torn between disturbed dismay and shock. Todoroki had thrown up a wall of ice to prevent bystanders from catching sight of the unconscious boy with shreds of bark still stuck to his body and fragments of thin, green vine that seemed to be growing from under his skin. They didn't need the anxiety thrumming in their own veins to spread through the nearby civilians as well.

Momo finished wrapping the bandages she'd created around a bloody gash in the boy's right arm and sat back on her heels, scrubbing the sweat and soot from her face. Now that she wasn't forcing herself not to think about what would have happened if they'd been too late—if Todoroki hadn't guessed the right tree in time—she couldn't stop her hands from shaking. It was different from the anger and horror she felt when faced with the wanton violence that some villains reveled in. This casual disregard for life and careless cruelty made her insides twist with a mixture of rage and disgust and fear.

"There," she said, clearing her throat, "that should stop the bleeding, but we really need to get him to a hospital."

"His heartbeat is really erratic," Kyoka reported.

Sting crouched beside the boy opposite Momo and checked his forehead with the back of his hand. The boy's skin was cold and clammy.

"I don't think it's safe to just move him. He's in really bad shape."

Zeref frowned from the spot where he had stationed himself near the ice wall. After he'd weakened the roots of the tree with some extremely careful use of his ability so Sting and the students could pull the entire plant up without jostling it too much, Ochaco had made the tree lighter with a touch and they'd moved it a safe distance from the unnaturally persistent fire. Removing the boy from the now dying plant proved much trickier. There was a reason they'd left Jenny Mikaka where they'd found her.

His phone buzzed. Zeref checked the message, cleared his throat, and said, "Natsu says they're bringing medical help."

Mere moments later, the shadows cast by the ice wall shifted, and suddenly, three more people joined them. Rogue plopped down on the grass with an exhausted sigh. Natsu surveyed the mess with a raised eyebrow, checked to make sure Zeref was okay, and then headed towards where the firefighters were still cleaning up the burnt remains of the other trees. The last newcomer—a young woman with brilliant navy hair tied up in a high ponytail that cascaded all the way down her back—moved immediately to where Sting and Momo were still hovering over the unconscious student. Sting hurriedly shuffled aside for her. They exchanged a few words, and she held her hands out palms down over the boy, a pale green glow spreading rapidly from her fingers to envelope him.

"Who's that?"

Zeref started at the question and glanced to his side, automatically measuring the distance between himself and the speaker.

It took Izuku a moment to realize what he was doing. When it hit him, he waved both his hands frantically and took several steps back. "Sorry! I almost forgot!"

Certain that the boy was far enough away, Zeref relaxed and said, "Her name is Wendy. She's a doctor. The hospital where she works is on the other side of Tokyo. Among other things, her Quirk allows her to heal certain kinds of injuries and to bolster and enhance another person's strength, including the body's ability to heal itself."

"So a little like Recovery Girl?"

"Not exactly, but close enough. Wendy's ability doesn't work as quickly though, and it's easier on the patient's body. It's more directed towards... keeping a person strong than towards mending what's broken. By that token, she's much better at working with patients who are too weak for people like Recovery Girl to use her ability on safely, not to mention people suffering from illness or poison. It's also useful in battle since it can temporarily boost an ally's power, but for the most part, her time and energy are too valuable in the hospital room for her to bother with much fighting."

"It sounds like you know her pretty well."

Zeref shrugged and said only, "She's a Dragon Slayer."

Which was really the only explanation he had to give. He knew all the Dragon Slayers pretty well and had, by necessity, familiarized himself with their abilities and general disposition.

"Excuse me."

Zeref looked to his other side to find that Todoroki had joined them as well. The boy glanced at the distance between Zeref and Izuku and took care to stand about the same distance away as he continued.

"These flowers, I think they might be important."

He held up a segment of pale green vine that he'd stashed in his pocket earlier. It dangled from his fingers, adorned with two slightly crushed flowers, their petals snowy white and feathery.

"I'm sure I saw flowers like these on the other tree too," Todoroki explained. "One of the villains is supposed to be able to manipulate plants, right?"

"Is there more of them?" Zeref asked, looking towards where the trees had once stood.

Todoroki shook his head. "I checked, but they've either all been burned or removed. They seem unusually flammable."

Zeref considered this then gestured at the plant sample. "Could I see half of that?"

Without a word, Todoroki snapped the vine in the middle and, with a questioning look at Zeref, tossed it to him.

The moment Zeref's fingers closed around the vine, it went brown and the white petals wilted. The dark-haired young man only sighed before carefully pulling the wrinkled, brown tangle apart. Something filmy and damp stained his fingers, and he rubbed his fingertips together, frowning. Some of the moisture was probably water, but the rest of it...

"There's oil in this," he said aloud, lifting his gaze from the remains of the vine. "I'm going to assume that these samples at least aren't poisonous, seeing as both you and I appear unaffected. We should collect some cuts from the other tree if they're still there. I don't recognize this species of flower, but I have to admit that I don't know much about flora."

"Me neither," Todoroki admitted. "But I don't think it's a coincidence."

Zeref had to agree.

"He's as stable as I can make him right now," Wendy announced, tucking a stray strand of blue hair behind her ear. "I'll need proper medical equipment to do more. We have to move him carefully."

Rogue staggered back to his feet and dropped down next to her. "I think I've got enough energy left for that. But I can only take one other person if we want to be sure not to jostle him."

"That should probably be me," Wendy said. "I'm afraid his condition will worsen without my ability to support him. Taking him from the tree, not to mention the tree dying, was a huge shock to his system."

Natsu nodded and turned briskly to the gathered students. "Right, so this is what we're going to do..."

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

.


	8. Second Interlude

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

 **CHAPTER WARNINGS: none**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **8\. Second Interlude**

" _There's no such thing as talent without work."_

 _~ Shinichi Chiaki, Nodame Cantabile, episode 2_

When Natsu was five, his mother passed away in a car accident.

It was crazy, in a society where people could literally turn into monsters and cause explosions with their bare hands, that people still got killed by things as mundane as car accidents. And it had been crazier still because her Quirk had allowed her, to a limited extent, to hear other people's thoughts and predict their actions. Of course, maybe that had been the problem. She hadn't always been good at filtering out the noise. In the end though, it didn't really matter how it had happened. The fact was that she was gone.

Neither Natsu nor his father had cried at the funeral. Why? Natsu couldn't say. Maybe that just wasn't how the two of them tended to react to loss. Instead, for awhile, the world had just felt... distant. Colorless and not quite real.

That was probably about the time that Natsu had begun to notice that Zeref wasn't quite like most of the people he knew. All his other classmates tread on eggshells around him for awhile. They tried to ease the tragedy with words, and then they went out of their way to invite him to join them for games and other things—trying, perhaps, in their way to help him move on. To get back to some semblance of normal life. There was nothing wrong with that, of course. He'd appreciated the effort—really, he had. But it hadn't been what he'd wanted.

The dark-haired boy never said that he was sorry, although Natsu had seen it in his eyes along with a quiet melancholy. He hadn't said anything at all about what had happened, just sat with him and read him storybooks so his friend had something to think about other than the grief.

When Natsu had finally gotten around to asking him about all that, Zeref had sat for awhile in silence with his latest book resting open in his lap before answering in that oddly calm way he had, _"I suppose I haven't decided yet what the best response really is. If I had just lost someone important to me, I think I would want to remember. I know moving on is important, but... isn't holding on to the things you care about important too?"_

He'd paused then, glanced cautiously at Natsu, then dropped his gaze back to his book before adding, _"If it were me, I don't think I'd really want to be around a lot of people or have them trying to talk to me. But... I wouldn't want to be alone either. I'd just want someone to be there. It's lonely, being left behind."_

" _You don't like being alone?"_ Natsu had asked, curious. Zeref didn't often share so much of what was on his mind, and what he was saying didn't seem to match how he behaved in class.

" _No."_

" _But then why do you spend so much time by yourself?"_

" _I suppose... it's because I just don't find a lot of what other people do meaningful."_

Honestly, it was no wonder that so many people had found Zeref to be a strange if brilliant child. Sometimes though, Natsu wondered if it maybe did his partner more harm than good. He thought so much about things—too much, and being left to his own thoughts was a kind of torment of its own on bad days, especially as they grew older.

Half a year after his mother's funeral, Natsu had approached Zeref as he was reading by himself in a corner of the playground after school and invited him to join Natsu and his friends in a game.

" _It's a battle game,"_ he'd explained. _"Like a combination of tag, capture the flag, and having to get to your opponent's goal and—oh, just come over and we'll explain it. You can be our strategist. I think you'll like it, or at least I'm pretty sure you won't hate it. So come give it a try, 'kay?"_

Natsu wasn't the kind of person who spent much time looking back at the past, but damn, sometimes, he really missed those days.

Middle school had been hellish with all his classmates getting all excited at the prospect of joining a hero training program once they got to high school.

He'd come home only a few months into his first year to find his father waiting for him in the living room, a grim expression on his face and his cell phone still in his hand. He'd waited only for Natsu to shut the door behind him before telling him about the attack on the Zero Facility and informing him that the place would be upping its security—that they wouldn't be allowing correspondences for awhile with people who didn't need to be communicating with them and their charges. _Unimportant_ people, in other words. And apparently, they thought that Natsu was one of those unimportant people. The only thing they'd wanted Igneal to tell his son was that his friend was safe and alive, but the older Dragon Slayer had briefed his son on what he knew of what had occurred anyway. Young though Natsu might have been, his father had felt that he still had a right to know.

 _Safe and alive._

As if Natsu wouldn't be able to guess what might have happened just because he was still a kid. How naive did they think he was?

After that, it had been impossible for Natsu to understand how his classmates could be so carefree—could look at this whole business of Quirks and heroes and villains with such enthusiasm and levity. He'd gotten into so many fights at school that his father had, as soon as summer rolled around, enrolled him in a fulltime martial arts class where he would—hopefully—put his excessive energy to better use and learn some self discipline at the same time. It had been a good decision, not only because Natsu quite liked martial arts, but also because people weren't allowed to use Quirks in the class and so talk of such matters never came up. Sure, regular sports weren't as popular these days with Quirk-based athletic events garnering far more interest and attention, but that didn't mean there weren't still some individuals who liked old-style sports and competitions. Besides, learning how to fight without the assistance of abilities had its advantages.

Natsu refused to let Quirks define his world—or Zeref's world, for that matter.

Starting high school had been a breath of fresh air.

Natsu wasn't cut out for stewing in the past. Sooner or later, he had to start looking forward—had to figure out what to do so that the sullen, frustrated unhappiness didn't drive him crazy...

" _We need to talk."_

 _Natsu looked towards the doorway of the kitchen where his father stood._

" _What about?" he asked. Slices of apple, ham, cheese, lettuce, and other ingredients were arranged upon the granite countertop before him, not yet assembled into a sandwich._

" _High school entrance exams will be starting soon," Igneal said. "I know you're not interested in becoming a hero, but I think you should still enroll in a hero training program."_

" _I know that already. For Quirk training."_

 _Igneal shook his head. "No, not just for that. U.A., if you can get in, there's a teacher there I think you should meet."_

 _Natsu frowned. "What do you mean?"_

 _His father sighed and folded his arms across his chest. "I've said this before, but you can't just fight your way out of all your problems."_

 _The younger Fire Dragon Slayer eyed his father warily, wondering how much he knew of what he'd been thinking._

 _Luckily, Igneal continued without waiting for a response. "You want to see him again, don't you? There's a teacher at U.A. with an ability that might help you talk them into letting you visit."_

" _You mean—actually visit? In person?"_

 _The corners of his father's mouth quirked in amusement at his sudden interest. "That's right. But like I said, passing the entrance exams should come first."_

" _Wait, aren't you going to tell me who the guy is and what his Quirk does?"_

" _I will. After you pass the exams."_

...His father could be annoying like that, although Natsu supposed it had been one way of motivating him and putting him on the path of thinking more constructively about the choices that lay ahead of him.

U.A. High.

If his father hadn't brought it up, Natsu probably wouldn't have bothered applying—not because he didn't think he could get in, but because he'd figured the extra publicity would do his future plans more harm than good.

Shota Aizawa hadn't been quite what Natsu had expected. Frankly, most of the class had thought at first that a homeless man had wandered into their classroom for a nap. He wasn't like most of the pro heroes that got featured on television, not just because he looked perpetually tired, but because he pulled no punches when he talked.

The thing about Shota Aizawa was that he never tried to make reality out to be any less harsh than it actually was.

Natsu appreciated that about him. Well, most of the time anyway... in retrospect at least. Even when the teacher confronted him with uncomfortable truths...

" _You do realize that he would do anything for you, don't you?" Aizawa asked. It was the start of Natsu's last year in high school. "Just something you should keep in mind."_

" _What are you talking about?" Natsu was looking out the window as the shuttle flew along the rails back towards the school campus, only half listening._

" _I'm saying that if the day ever comes that you have to choose between Zeref's safety and yours, you had better prioritize yours and trust him to take care of himself."_

 _That caught Natsu's attention all right, and he turned to scowl at Aizawa. "What?"_

" _I'm not saying that your life is more important than his," Aizawa said. Honestly, the boy had way too much of a one-track mind sometimes. He'd have to work on not being so easy to read. "Your reaction to my words just now tells me that you're not ready for the responsibility that you're asking everyone to give you."_

" _I don't get what you're trying to say."_

 _Aizawa matched the Dragon Slayer glare for glare. "Then listen more carefully. You can't let your emotions cloud your judgment. You have to get better at thinking ahead about the possible consequences of your actions You have a tendency to go charging straight into things. You can't afford to keep doing that. It doesn't matter how strong you are, because it won't be about whether you're able to win or not. Like the rest of your classmates, you get angry if you see people hurting others, but even after you get your license, stepping in is not a choice you'll be free to make. You need to be clear about your priorities. Your responsibility is going to be just one person who could, if he so chose, wipe out every person, bird, animal, insect, and plant in this city."_

" _He'd never do something like that."_

" _Not even to save you? If someone threatened you and made that demand of him?"_

 _Natsu opened his mouth then shut it again. He couldn't answer that._

" _I'm not saying that he'd_ want _to," Aizawa continued, his voice more tired now. "From what I've seen, he'd probably hate himself for it, but I think he'd do it anyway—for you. I believe he understands that, and you have to understand it too."_

 _Finding his voice again, Natsu declared, "I won't let something like that happen."_

" _Then you'd better start developing your long-term, strategic thinking skills. I know you're creative in a battle and good at making split-second judgments, but that's only a fraction of the kind of strategizing you're going to have to be able to do. You need to be able to_ avoid _fights, not just get out of them. You have to know when to be cautious, and when you can't be the one stepping in. It wouldn't hurt to work on your poker face either—and your memory. You'll have to be able to memorize building layouts quickly, not to mention exactly where all the exits are and where the most people are likely to be. Oh, and—get Zeref to teach you to play chess."_

...Responsibility, huh?

Natsu had thought a lot about responsibility his last year in high school—and after graduating too—about what it really meant. There were the responsibilities that came with the relationships one formed with others—with being a friend, a teacher, a student, a parent, a child... The basic responsibilities that came with being a decent human being that so many villains neglected, and the responsibilities that came with having power.

It had taken a long time for him to understand that maybe that was part of the reason why Zeref didn't seem to resent his situation the way Natsu did. Zeref felt responsible for the potential consequences of his Quirk, and part of that included isolating himself from those he might inadvertently harm.

Natsu could still remember the bafflement on Zeref's face when he'd asked to learn chess. Natsu had always been more into sports than games that required a lot of sitting still. All the same, Zeref had dutifully set about doing everything he could to help Natsu master the game of chess. That was something they'd always had in common; everything they decided to do, they put everything they had into.

Zeref was a patient teacher and seemed to know more odd facts and bits of history than his actual teachers at school. Then again, he did almost nothing but read in his free time while he'd been stuck at the Facility, and now that he had more freedom, he spent a lot of that freedom taking online college courses in a diverse range of fields. Natsu thought it was a bit crazy.

" _And yet you're always so interested when I tell you about the things I learn,"_ Zeref said.

" _That's because you filter out all the boring stuff when you tell me about your classes. And you've got this way of connecting everything together that makes it all make sense and seem more important, even if it_ is _just some dead guy's views on the meaning of life or whatever."_

" _...Thank you?"_

" _You're welcome. So what were those tricks you said would help me improve my memory?"_

Honestly, emotional issues or no, Zeref was a pretty damned amazing person.

Sometimes—not often, mind you, but sometimes—Natsu wondered if Zeref would have ended up with him if... well, if he'd had more choices.

" _Don't be ridiculous,"_ Zeref had told him the one time Natsu had reluctantly admitted this thought out loud over dinner in their new home. _"I love you because you are you. There is_ always _a choice. It's not like I_ have _to be with someone. I'm not that kind of person. Having you with me, just being around you... it makes me happy, and life seems a little easier. Your attitude, the way you think about and approach things... They make me feel calmer. More positive."_

He'd paused then and then added with some humor, _"So even if I had met other people and could interact with them like a normal person, I can assure you that you would have had a very good chance."_

Zeref's sense of humor showed up at the oddest moments sometimes.

" _And you know,"_ he'd said, growing serious again and looking away towards the sky beyond the living room window, _"I think you're pretty amazing too."_

Slightly embarrassing, maybe a little corny, but... kind of sweet too.

It was obvious from their first reunion that both of them had changed. They weren't quite the same people they had been when they were children, but that was okay. It was to be expected, and it wasn't like they'd become complete strangers. It was easy to relearn one another, and honestly, they probably knew each other better now than they ever had before.

Thanks to Aizawa's words, Natsu had thrown himself into his studies with new vigor. He'd been so focused on developing his skill sets and keeping his secrets that it caught him completely by surprise when Aizawa approached him with a request to tutor two underclassmen.

" _Uh, me? Teach? Are you sure you have the right person?"_

To which Aizawa had given him a rather flat look and said, _"They're both Dragon Slayers like you. I want you to show them how you fight and help them work on a few things. Chances are that you'll be seeing a lot of them in the future too."_

Aizawa hadn't spelled it out, but Natsu knew what he was getting at. These were students that it would be good for him to get to know.

" _Fine, but I don't know if I can really teach them anything."_

" _You will,"_ Aizawa had stated matter-of-factly before handing him a manila folder _. "Here. This is what they need to work on."_

It only took a cursory glance through the folder for Natsu to realize that Aizawa was right, he probably could teach these students a thing or two. It was mostly about fighting and combat styles anyway, and if there was one thing Natsu really excelled at without much help, it was fighting.

Maybe it wasn't the best way to introduce himself, starting the training by mopping the floor with them both. But then, fighting was a pretty big part of hero training, and it had been a good way for Natsu to assess their skill levels at the time. After that, it was down to helping them expand on and refine their control of their Quirks. Natsu had had an advantage in this compared with other Dragon Slayers since his father shared more or less the same abilities. Honestly, for them, it was all about control.

" _Our Quirks are really good for wholesale destruction,"_ Natsu remembered telling them. _"It's easy for us to ramp up insane amounts of raw power, but that's really not all that great for fighting in cities except in really extreme circumstances. So Mr. Aizawa asked me to help you guys work on that—and also on fighting without relying so heavily on the use of Quirks, seeing as that's something I've got a lot of experience with."_

Turned out the two had been hoping for a chance to meet him. Natsu was the closest to their age among the other Dragon Slayers with the exception of Wendy, who had gone to a different hero program specializing in healing and medical support. Natsu could still recall most of the conversation they'd had after that first day, the three of them sitting on the floor amidst the debris of a demolished building, replenishing their energy with food they'd gotten from the cafeteria...

" _You always look so serious and intense when you fight," Sting said over a half eaten bowl of curry. "And during the last Sports Festival, you made it to the semifinals, but it seemed like you barely used your Quirk at all. It was awesome, but you could have stood out a lot more if you'd used your element more."_

" _Yeah, well, I don't really care about all that."_

" _So the rumors are true then?" Rogue asked. "About you not being interested in becoming a pro?"_

 _Natsu hadn't known there were still rumors going around about that. Didn't his fellow students have anything better to gossip about?_

 _Guarded, Natsu replied to the younger boy's question with a question of his own. "What if it is?"_

 _He'd had enough flak from his classmates about it—not to mention all the other students who wanted to be in the hero course but hadn't been able to get in. He didn't need any more._

 _To his surprise, the other two only shrugged._

" _We were just wondering," Sting said for the both of them. "You must have your reasons, and they've got to be some serious convictions for you to go through all this even though you don't even want to be a pro. Honestly, it's kind of cool that you don't let what anyone says bother you. It's just unusual is all."_

 _Natsu looked at his own bowl of curry for awhile, thinking, then said, "Can you guys keep a secret?"_

 _Curious, the two younger boys nodded._

" _I've got a friend... Since you're both Dragon Slayers, I might be able to introduce you someday. But anyway, he's got a really dangerous Quirk that makes it hard for him to get close to people, but it doesn't affect people with Quirks like ours. I guess you could say that I'm here because it's the best chance he has at something even a little close to a normal life."_

 _Sting frowned. "I'm not sure I get it, but this sounds important to you."_

" _Well, you've got to look after the people you care about, right? Especially if you're one of the only people who can help. I mean, if you can't even help the people right next to you, what use would there be in becoming a hero?"_

 _It was the other two's turn to just think for awhile._

 _Then Rogue said, "I suppose there's no point in saying this, but it seems to me like you would have been a pretty good pro hero if that's what you'd wanted."_

 _Natsu shrugged. Rogue was right. It was a pointless comment, but Natsu could appreciate the sentiment all the same._

" _What about you two? Why do you want to become heroes?"_

 _Sting and Rogue exchanged slightly embarrassed glances before the former said, "Well, there are a couple of reasons, but for one thing, we come from a pretty small town. For us, the pro heroes that came to help out and that we saw on TV were always from somewhere else, and some of the other kids were saying that no one from our town could ever become a pro..."_

 _It was one of the most serious conversations Natsu had ever had with any of his fellow U.A. students, and well... there was something nice bout that. About being able to talk about the things that really mattered to him._

 _When they wee all finished eating, Natsu set his empty bowl aside and stood up. "By the way, you're wrong about me not using my Quirk much during the Sports Festival. We call up a lot of energy when we're using our elements. I just found a way to use that energy in a different way—to boost my physical abilities. Here, I'll show you. It's not particularly flashy, but you might find it useful in the future anyway."_

...It was too bad Natsu hadn't met the two one year earlier when they'd first started at U.A. High. It was such a luxury to have school friends he didn't have to lie to, not to mention actually share things with about his life outside of school...

 _Sting and Rogue stared at the two giant Tupperware boxes that Natsu plopped on the training room floor in front of them where they'd been sitting, waiting for him to finish his morning classes. The plastic was only semitransparent, so it was difficult to see the contents clearly, but their noses helped them fill in the blanks._

" _That's a_ lot _of chocolate cake," Rogue said._

 _At the same time that Sting asked, "Why are you giving us so much cake?"_

" _Zeref made it," Natsu said cheerfully. "It was my birthday yesterday."_

" _That's got to be enough cake for ten people at least, maybe more. I thought you said no one else could visit him, so at most, wouldn't it have just been you and Mr. Aizawa? Why'd he bake so much?"_

 _Natsu shrugged. "He said he'd never baked anything before, so he spent all day practicing. I promise they still taste great though. He's just a bit of a perfectionist sometimes. You should have seen the one he was actually happy with. He managed to draw a dragon with the frosting and everything. I would have taken a picture, but the place he's staying at always makes us leave our phones at the front desk. And for the record, Mr. Aizawa refused to have any. I don't think he cares for cake all that much."_

" _Shouldn't you have shared some with your classmates?"_

" _Nah, they'd just get all interested in meeting my girlfriend again. It took forever for them to stop asking about that last time."_

" _You have a girlfriend?"_

" _Nope. But I let them think so, so don't ruin my story, okay?"_

" _...So why not just tell them you have a boyfriend instead?"_

" _Yeah, no thanks. It's not that I think they'd mind. I just think that telling them would only draw more attention and make them want to meet him more."_

 _The younger two mulled this over. Okay, so Natsu was probably right about that. There were few things that teenagers liked to gossip more about than relationships._

" _Well, what are you guys waiting for? Get up and get ready to practice. And afterwards, we can have a cake eating contest!"_

...So maybe high school _did_ have its share of memorable, positive experiences, even some associated with being in a hero training program. Teaching actually turned out to be kind of cool. Competing with and sparring against his classmates was fun, and making a few new friends was a definite bonus.

It was Sting and Rogue who later suggested they get a videogame console, although neither Natsu nor Zeref had any particular fondness for videogames. It was something to do together, and if they looked hard enough, the younger two were certain that their friends could find some games they found worth playing. For the record, Natsu and Zeref were still looking. The more interactive sports games that required players to physically move around were nice, but as Natsu put it, _"Why would I bother playing virtual ping pong when I could play real ping pong instead?"_

Then there was that class field trip—seaside training camp—at the beach where all of his classmates had pitched in to help Natsu choose a souvenir for his significant other. Seeing all the crazy things they thought his partner might like had been funny, and in the end, he'd settled on a white dolphin plushie that one girl had unearthed from a pile of rather ugly sea turtle stuffed animals. Everyone assumed Natsu picked it because it was cute—and it _was_. But mostly, Natsu picked it because it was warm and fluffy and wouldn't die if Zeref spent too much time with it. His classmates didn't need to know that.

Choosing an alias his first year at U.A. had been a bit of a pain though...

" _How about Salamander?" Zeref asked, looking over Natsu's shoulder at the blank registration form that his friend was cursing over._

 _At least the Dragon Slayer had been allowed to take the form home and think it over before deciding._

 _Natsu made a face. "You want me to name myself after a lizard?"_

" _Amphibian," Zeref corrected. "And you know, dragons are basically like giant lizards."_

" _Yeah, but dragons are cool. I don't see why I can't just use the name of my Quirk. I know other people who've done that."_

" _You could," Zeref agreed, sitting back against the couch. "But that would mean advertising what your Quirk is at all times for the three years you're at school."_

 _Natsu frowned. That wasn't what he wanted. The more secrets he was able to keep, the better._

" _I don't know why I even need a hero name when I'm not going to be a hero," he grumbled then sighed. That was the downside of enrolling in a hero program, he supposed. As long as he was a student, there were some things he couldn't avoid. Besides, the internships and work studies would be useful, and he certainly didn't want his real name to become too well known. "Fine. So why Salamander?"_

" _In some mythology, they're considered to be fire spirits," Zeref explained. "It fits your element and it's easy to remember, but also not so outlandish as to stand out too much."_

...In the end, Natsu had still used the name for only three years, but he could admit that he grew sort of fond of it.

The first time Natsu had, at Aizawa's recommendation, reported to a hero agency that specialized in firefighting had been kind of funny too...

" _Are you sure you're in the right place?"_

 _Natsu frowned at the man behind the desk. "Mr. Aizawa should have contacted you already, right?"_

" _He did, but... your Quirk lets you create fire, is that right?"_

" _That's right."_

" _Can you put out fires too?"_

" _Er, no?"_

" _But you want to be a firefighter?"_

 _Natsu was starting to get annoyed. "You have a problem with that?"_

" _No, it's just... We generally recruit people with water type Quirks, you know?"_

" _I'm not saying I'll be putting out fires. I'm here to help rescue people from the buildings so that the other firefighters can get to work."_

" _Ah, I see. But wouldn't you prefer to get work experience at an agency where you can show off more of your abilities?"_

" _Are you telling me that you don't want my help?"_

" _No, of course not. But we're supposed to help you with planning for your career. We just want to make sure you're considering all your options."_

 _Natsu didn't bother trying to explain that he had no plans for trying to show off his powers. He didn't actually want people to know what his exact powers were. These people were confused enough as it was._

 _Instead, all he said was, "I've thought about it a lot, and I know what I'm doing. I promise I won't burn anything down."_

...Doing disaster rescue work was kind of a nice change of pace. Natural disasters could be tragic, but at least they weren't malicious. They weren't evil, so rescuing people from them was rewarding without being irritating.

He was good at it too...

" _We didn't lose a single person in the fire," Natsu said proudly._

 _He moved about the spacious albeit windowless living room, recounting stories from his past few days in a rather animated fashion while Zeref looked over his most recent set of exam papers to see what questions Natsu had gotten wrong._

" _There was this kid trapped on the fifth floor because no one knew that he was home. The stairs and stuff weren't usable anymore, but I got in through the window and got him out that way. I think he screamed more from my jumping with him out the window than from the fire, but other than breathing in a bit of smoke, he was fine. His mother came to thank me and everything, which was kind of awkward since she wanted to know who I was, but... Hey, you're smiling."_

" _I am?"_

 _Zeref seemed startled by the revelation._

" _Yes, you are."_

 _Sure, it was a rather tiny smile and a little weak as smiles went, but it was genuine. And heaven knew Zeref almost never really smiled these days._

" _It's nice," Natsu added, "but I have no idea why you're smiling all of a sudden. Is there something funny in my exam papers?"_

 _Zeref set the papers down on the coffee table and shook his head. "No, it's not that. It's just... nice to see you this happy."_

 _Natsu's brows furrowed. "Huh?"_

" _When you first started visiting, you were so angry," Zeref said after a moment's contemplation. "It wasn't like when you got angry when we were kids. That was always more... I don't know. Explosive. But when we met again, you were just... unhappy. It's nice to see you truly enjoying something again."_

 _In the ensuing silence, Natsu sat down next to him and looked at the neat pile of tests. Funny really. He was always watchful of his partner's moods, making sure he was there for Zeref when he needed him. He hadn't thought about the fact that Zeref did the same for him. No, that wasn't entirely right. Of course Natsu had known that. He just hadn't thought he needed it._

" _Guess I kind of picked up your habit of thinking too much about things," he said, the corners of his mouth turned up in wry amusement. "That's the problem with having too much time. It was frustrating. I didn't feel like I was making any headway at anything until I got to U.A."_

 _Zeref didn't respond right away. When he did speak, it was in the quiet, solemn, musing tone that Natsu associated with his partner being philosophical._

" _It can be overwhelming to realize how large and complicated some problems really are, especially problems that concern society as a whole. And it's frustrating to know things are wrong, but not know how to change them." Zeref paused then added, "I think U.A. High has been good for you. I'm glad you decided to apply."_

" _Yeah, whatever. I suppose it has its good points." Natsu made a face at his exam papers then turned his gaze to his partner. "Guess you were never really interested in being a pro hero yourself."_

" _No," Zeref agreed. "If I'd applied to the school, it would probably have been because you wanted to go. And if I did attend, I think I'm far better suited for the support course. I like the idea of inventing things. Making new technologies sounds far more interesting, and I don't particularly like the thought of fighting villains. I think... that it would be far too easy for me to hate them."_

 _Natsu nodded slowly then switched the subject to something less serious. "I actually met a few students from the support course the other day. We got to visit their lab and test a few gadgets. They had some cool stuff in development, although I think they may also have all been a bit crazy."_

...Natsu didn't often think about how else their lives might have gone. When it did cross his mind, he usually pushed it aside in favor of focusing on the things he still had to do in the present like training and homework.

Later, he would think about the "could have"s and "might have"s. Later, he would sort through the wishes of their younger selves to see if there was anything they might still want to do. But right then, it had been too difficult a subject to consider in a windowless apartment with someone who couldn't yet leave the building. Someone who would never be able to go anywhere without his own security detail.

" _You're so lucky,"_ Natsu's classmates often said. " _Your Quirk is so versatile_."

They were wrong though. Sure, he _was_ lucky, but not just because his Quirk had a lot of uses. He was lucky because it just happened to be exactly what he needed to accomplish his goals.

" _It's such a waste that you don't want to go pro,"_ his classmates said also—something like every other week starting from the first day they'd found out until he'd graduated.

Natsu couldn't imagine that being less true. Whatever else he was or wasn't doing with his Quirk, he most definitely wasn't wasting it. After all, how could it ever be a waste to spend time with someone you cared about?

There was a lot more to being a hero than fighting bad guys and natural disasters.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

.


	9. Seeing Ghosts

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneel x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **9\. Seeing Ghosts**

" _Before you become a hero, you should learn how to be a good human"_

 _~ Kota Izumi, My Hero Academia, season 3 episode 2_

"I feel like a burglar," Asui lamented as she clambered up the wall of the apartment building towards one of the fourth floor windows. The bricks were still slightly warm from the afternoon heat, although the sky had already begun to darken.

"We just need you to take a peek through the window," Natsu's voice filtered through the communication device in her ear. "You don't need to break in. We'll be doing that part."

"Uh, is that really supposed to make me feel better?"

"How about this," Natsu amended. "I have a warrant here that says we're allowed to break in if no one answers the door. We _are_ here to search the place after all. And both Kyoka and I have confirmed that there aren't any humans inside."

Or any other living animal for that matter. There were no sounds of heartbeats or breathing, but there were other sounds that neither Natsu nor Kyoka could identify.

"So why aren't we waiting for her to come back?" Asui heard Kyoka mutter from the other end of the intercom.

"Easy. Because while your classmate Shinso was asking the nice neighbors to leave for a few hours, he learned that no one's seen or heard from her in more than a week. We really can't afford to just wait."

Mentally, Asui shook her head. She should have known something was up when Natsu and Zeref assigned some of them to clear out the apartments around their target. Shinso and Izuku were on the third floor now, working on the not-so-nice downstairs neighbors—Shinso because his Quirk let him make people do what he asked if need be and Izuku because he had the kind of face people trusted.

Right, Asui thought, they were on a time limit. That part had been bothering her. When she thought about it, even though the villains had given them a deadline and had done small things here and there to make them feel the pressure, it didn't really seem as though they were trying all that hard to stop them from finding the missing students. It made her uneasy, wondering if she and her companions were overlooking something or if the bad guys had something different on their agenda.

Her left hand reached the window ledge, and Asui pulled herself up the last few inches. Good thing it was evening. If the sun had been any higher, the glare off the windowpanes would have made seeing anything through the class almost impossible.

"Oh wow," she muttered. "Now that's something you don't see every day."

"What is it?" Kyoka asked, her voice tense even over the intercom.

"There are vines like everywhere," Asui reported, blinking a few times then squinting through the partially open blinds.

"That doesn't really explain the noise," Natsu said, half a comment and half a question.

"It does actually. Because they're moving."

For a moment, there was silence on the other end of the line.

Then Zeref's voice came through, quieter and more far away than the previous voices. "Can you describe what you see?"

"Well," Asui started then paused to scan the room beyond the window more carefully. "For the most part, it looks like a pretty typical living room. There's a TV and two armchairs—oh, and a lot of pictures on the walls, although it's a little hard to see them through the vines. The vines are growing over everything, and I mean _everything_. Even the ceiling's covered with them. The ones on the floor aren't as obvious because the carpet has a kind of swirling pattern, but the fact that they're moving kind of gives them away."

"I suppose that explains the odd sounds," Kyoka muttered.

"Right, and how large would you say the room is?" Natsu asked. "Give us an estimate of the dimensions."

Asui rattled off a few numbers and then carefully made her way back down to the open, corridor window on the third floor that she'd used to get outside. She arrived back on the fourth floor just in time to hear the tail end of Izuku's report.

"There was this one couple downstairs that didn't really want to hear anything we had to say—something about us interrupting their date night—so Shinso, ah, "suggested" that they spend the evening out together instead—in Shibuya. I hope that's okay."

Natsu grinned, obviously amused. "I'm sure they'll have fun. You did the floor above already, right? Great. So all the surrounding rooms should be empty. Kyoka, if you could just double check that?"

As soon as Kyoka confirmed this, Natsu gestured for them to back away and Zeref moved to stand before their target apartment. He placed a hand on the door and shut his eyes. If the rest of them looked hard, they could just barely make out a thin, shadowy fog wrap around him and seep into the room beyond.

Kyoka rubbed at the goose bumps that prickled across her arms as she listened to the rustling inside grow still. She hated to admit it, but it was just a little bit creepy.

When Zeref stepped away, Natsu unlocked the door with the key he'd borrowed from the landlord and gestured at Todoroki.

"I'd rather none of us touch those vines, even if they are dead."

With a nod of understanding, Todoroki very carefully sent a thin sheet of ice across the floor and walls of the apartment. Not until he gave the okay did any of them step over the threshold, some parts of the icy floor crunching a little under the rubber soles of their shoes.

Like Asui had said, apart from the plants, there didn't appear to be anything particularly unusual about the apartment. It wasn't like they were expecting to unearth skeletons in the closet or anything, but While the girls looked through the bedroom, the rest of them focused on carefully removing bits of iced over vine from the framed photographs upon the walls. Zeref, distancing himself as usual, wandered into the small study, glancing at the contents of shelves and desk drawers.

Not surprisingly, most of Misaki Yamada's books were about plants. She'd obtained her degree in botanical studies at a young age and worked for awhile in a laboratory conducting research on plant genetics. That was where she'd met Kimihara, and the two of them had set out to open their own greenhouse and plant nursery.

Zeref wondered a little at how impersonal it all felt.

There was only one book that had nothing to do with her work or her research, and that was a thin volume of fairytales. He took this one off the shelf and flipped carefully through the pages, stopping on the inside of the back cover. A scribbled note in the corner read— _Happy birthday! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. From Akiko._

Quietly, Zeref shut the book and placed it back on the shelf.

Akiko. Akira Kimihara's sister had been called Akiko, hadn't she? Could it be the same person?

Out in the living room, he heard Izuku ask, "Should we take some of these vines back?"

"Sure," Natsu said. "Better get a plastic bag from the kitchen if she's got any."

The sound of footsteps was followed by, "Wow, the kitchen's basically empty. There's no food in here at all. Do you think she knew she wasn't going to be home for awhile?"

Assuming she intended to return at all.

It seemed to Zeref as though this apartment was more a place where someone stayed when not at work rather than a place where someone lived.

.

"Don't you think it's been too easy?"

Asui's question settled over the room, followed by a pensive silence. The whole team was settled around the conference room—well, half of the conference room anyway. Zeref and Natsu had the other half all to themselves.

The kitchens had whipped up some dinner for them and it was getting late, but they mostly just picked at the food. What bits of the table weren't covered in dishes and cups were covered in papers, and Zeref had his laptop out. He hadn't taken his eyes off the screen since they'd gotten back almost an hour ago.

"I mean, think about it," Asui continued. "These bad guys have some crazy powers for sneak attacks. If they really just wanted to hurt us, they could have done a lot more by now. And out of the three students we were supposed to find, we've already gotten two of them. It doesn't feel like they're trying all that hard to stop us."

"I get what you mean," Todoroki said after a thoughtful moment, setting down the lab reports he'd been examining. "Some of our classmates and a few of the support course students took a look at the plant samples we brought back. It looks like the plant itself is a completely unknown species, possibly genetically modified or created by a Quirk. And the vines are hollow. The ones from the park have something like oil inside, but the ones from the apartment actually contain a minor toxin—something that would cause severe itching and rashes. It seems like whoever controls those plants can probably use them to carry whatever substance they want. They could have chosen a more lethal poison."

"So what, do they think it's funny, making us all run around like this?" Kyoka demanded, eyes narrowed. It was a rhetorical question really.

"Nah." Natsu shook his head, took a large bite of a rice ball, chewed, swallowed, and then added, "I can safely say that Kimihara at least did not find any of this particularly funny. He didn't look like the kind of person who cares much for jokes."

In fact, whatever else the man might be, Natsu was sure that he was dead serious.

"So then," Izuku said slowly, "they might have ulterior motives that we haven't thought of."

Asui admitted. "That's what I was thinking anyway."

The question was, what?

The mood in the room was a muddled mixture of solemnity and weariness. It had been a very long day, and the events from earlier were beginning to take their toll. The boy from the park was in the infirmary, still under Wendy's care but no longer in danger of dying, so at least one thing had gone right.

The kids weren't used to dealing with villains like this. Most fights between heroes and villains were a lot more straightforward. Most villains in the current day and age did things because their Quirks made them feel like they could get away with it. Kimihara and Yamada felt like they'd be doing what they were doing even if they had no powers at all. This wasn't about Quirks.

Zeref set down his coffee mug and asked, without glancing up, "Can someone find the files on the first two victims? The ones that died."

The students shifted a bit at his bluntness, but began sorting through the papers in front of them.

The first death.

The first murder.

"I found the police report," Shinso said after a moment. "Should I read it?"

Zeref nodded.

Fourteen-year-old Sakura Tanaka had been popular amongst her classmates. On a Friday several weeks ago, she and a group of her friends had been at the mall. They'd stayed there for awhile, doing whatever it was most groups of teenage girls did at the mall, and left for home early in the afternoon. She never arrived there.

"Do we know what kind of person she was?" Zeref asked.

There was another rustle of papers.

"I think Ochaco talked with most of her classmates and a few of her teachers," Izuku said. "She got really good grades, and she was considered an outstanding student. Some of her classmates weren't very sorry that she was gone though."

Kyoka, who had been flipping through a later police report, spoke up. "It looks like the investigators asked around a bit to see if she'd made any enemies, but since it was just a few other students, they ruled them out as suspects. Oh, and their whereabouts were accounted for too."

Natsu raised his eyebrows. "What other students?"

"Well, no one said it outright, but I think the officers doing the investigating concluded that she was a bit of a bully. The teachers noticed some of it, but they told the police it was just kids being kids."

"That doesn't make it okay," Zeref said. "Just because you're young doesn't mean you don't have to take responsibility for your actions."

He'd been dealing with serious issues and responsibilities since he was seven. He didn't have any sympathy or patience for sentiments like "kids being kids".

The high schoolers looked over at him, startled by the coldness in Zeref's voice. They hadn't heard that tone before.

Sensing the sudden unease in the atmosphere of the room, Zeref finally lifted his gaze over the top of his computer. Natsu glanced from his partner to the students then back again, but he made no move to step into the conversation.

Zeref met each of their stares in turn, but when he spoke again, all he said was, "So what about the second case?"

After the students had gone home, Zeref sat staring at the chart he'd painstakingly begun to create on his laptop. Multicolored, little boxes full of names and little arrows linking them together like a lopsided spider web. It was all coming together, which was good, but it never made him happy. Satisfied, yes, but not _happy_.

It was hard to be happy if you spent too much time in the headspace of criminals, especially when you started to understand them.

He'd need a long vacation after this to get back to feeling like a normal-ish person and stop his mild dislike of the human race from building up.

The living room door opened then closed.

Natsu sat down on the couch next to him and peered over his shoulder at the screen.

"Do we know if either Kimihara or Yamada were at the mall that day?" Zeref asked.

"I don't know about Kimihara, but Yamada was. Making a flower delivery."

Sharp, green eyes scanned the chart.

"You've added a lot of names," Natsu observed.

"They're Akiko Kimihara's high school classmates," Zeref explained.

Natsu looked at the names. He'd gotten good at following his partner's thinking.

"So... all of them still alive?"

Zeref saved the chart and turned off the computer. "We're going to find out."

They sat for another minute in silence as the hum of the machine died down. The screen went black, and Zeref found himself examining the faint reflection of their own faces upon the glassy surface.

"Do you think I said too much?" he asked finally.

Natsu shrugged. "Don't know. I don't think you're wrong though."

Zeref mulled this over then shut his laptop with a sigh. He wasn't especially tired, but it was late. They should probably try to get a few hours' sleep before getting back to work. They'd have to schedule a meeting with the faculty too, if this whole scenario was headed in the direction that they suspected it was.

.

"What do you think about fairytales?"

Aizawa raised an eyebrow at the question even though Zeref, walking a little ways ahead of him, couldn't see it. "Why do you ask?"

Zeref shrugged, pausing to check the address of a building before continuing on. "No particular reason. Miss Yamada had a book of fairytales. It was the only book she had that wasn't related to her work. I suppose she could have just kept it because it was a gift from someone she cared for, but it looked very well read."

The older man mulled this over, one eye on Zeref and the other on the people passing them on the sidewalk.

It was still quite early and it was a quiet sort of district, but they still had to be careful. Natsu was tailing them from a distance, ready to intervene if need be, but they had decided that it would be better if he stayed out of sight since he'd spoken with Kimihara before and the botanist would probably recognize him if the man was keeping an eye on their current destination.

"They're just stories," the high school teacher said finally. "I suppose they might give children unrealistic expectations, but then the same can be said of a lot of stories. People learn."

Zeref hummed thoughtfully. "They do, but people like to dream too."

Aizawa quirked an eyebrow. "Feeling philosophical today?"

"When am I not?"

"Fair point." There was a pause, and then he asked, "And what about you? What do you think of fairytales?"

Zeref took his time answering, and when he did, his tone was both wry and thoughtful. "I think they're a bit depressing, but then maybe that's unfair of me to say since I got my ever after, more or less. And it's a better one than I expected to have, even if it's sometimes tough and not always happy."

Aizawa shrugged and said, "It's realistic."

Which really just went to show how similar they were in some respects.

Aizawa rarely went on assignments with Zeref these days, and the last time he'd accompanied the boy anywhere had been that time when Sting had been in the hospital. So that was what? Several months ago now?

It had been way more tense than a trip to the grocery store had any right to be. Natsu had been attending a meeting with a handful of government officials, negotiating the details of the case they were about to take on, which left only his old high school teacher to help his partner gather ideas and ingredients for get-well gifts for their friends who had been injured in the recent bombings. Zeref had _not_ been in a stable frame of mind, and really, Aizawa would have offered to do the grocery shopping on his behalf except that, to be honest, he knew almost nothing about good cooking and had no idea how to tell the difference between a really fine vegetable and a... less fine vegetable. Or fungi or meat for that matter.

" _It's really not that difficult,_ " Zeref had told him, handing him a box of pale mushrooms. " _Do you see that soft bit on the bottom? That part tends to be broken on less fresh mushrooms. And as for vegetables, usually, if they look really nice, they probably are. Like if the color is very vivid, for example, and they shouldn't feel soft."_

Aizawa had refrained from mentioning that he generally bought his food already prepared and just let the boy talk, because educating the older man on the finer points of judging produce seemed to relax him and take his mind off the fact that the grocery store was packed with customers and, only a few days ago, a lot of people had been killed and hurt.

" _The really tricky part is picking fruit. It's hard to tell just by looking which ones are actually going to be sweet."_

" _Yeah?"_

 _Zeref nodded. "In that case, it's easier if you just bring a Dragon Slayer with you."_

" _...Right."_

They hadn't talked at all about work. Hadn't talked about the people who had been injured or the parts of the city that had been roped off and would need to be rebuilt. Hadn't talked about the people they both knew who had been affected or the spate of related criminal activity. They'd put quite a lot of effort into—not—talking about those things. Funny really, how so many serious issues in their lives were wrapped up in mundane moments just like that.

Great. And now Aizawa was getting philosophical too.

"This should be it," Zeref said, looking up at the nondescript, gray building.

It looked much like any other high-rise apartment complex, not especially luxurious but not especially rundown either. Some attempt had been made at decoration in the form of several potted plants arranged along the breezeway that led into a square, inner courtyard. Their destination was on the second floor. Zeref had already tried calling the apartment several times, but no one had ever answered. Nobody answered their knocks upon the door now either. They'd come prepared to pick the lock if need be, but a brief search unearthed a spare key tucked away in a hidden compartment behind the plaque by the door that had the apartment number engraved upon it.

"Did you call her workplace?" Zeref asked as they gave the doorbell one last try. "It was a hero tech support company, wasn't it?"

"It was, and I did. They said she left for Osaka on vacation a week ago. Something about needing a break because she'd been suffering from nightmares and insomnia. She was supposed to be back at work today, but she never showed up. And before you ask, I called the hotel where she was supposed to be staying, and they said she never checked in."

"I see."

A whole week. Could someone, even someone who lived alone, really disappear for a whole week without anyone noticing that something might be wrong? Aizawa slid the key into the lock and turned it, and as the door swung inward, it appeared that yes, someone could.

The first thing that struck them was the cold. Freezing cold air enveloped them even before they'd crossed the threshold, spurred on by the loud hum of the air conditioner somewhere in the apartment, a shocking contrast to the summer heat outside. The second thing that struck them was the smell, the unpleasant odor of decay just barely held in check by the icy temperature within the apartment.

Quietly, Aizawa shut the apartment door behind them. Nothing seemed amiss in the living room where they stood. They surveyed the small but neatly kept space before looking towards the three closed doors and the open kitchen doorway.

"Stay here," Aizawa instructed. "I'll check the other rooms."

Zeref didn't argue, just moved to look through the glass doors that led onto a narrow balcony. He could guess well enough what likely lay behind one of those doors. Seeing it would only upset him more and make things difficult for Aizawa.

There were no plants on the balcony.

Behind him, Zeref could hear the squeak and swish of doors being opened then shut. The smell, horribly familiar after his recent visit to the morgue, was making him feel sick. Only a few minutes later, Aizawa came back and joined him by the balcony doors, looking at the nearly identical apartment building across the street.

"She's dead," he said without preamble. "Probably has been for several days."

Zeref nodded. They'd have to let the police know, get some investigators in here discretely, move the body without alerting anyone to the fact that it had been found if possible... The bill for the AC on this place was going to be insane.

"I'll let Natsu know what we found," Zeref said, reaching for his phone.

Aizawa made a sound of acknowledgement in his throat and took out his own phone to contact the police.

When everyone who needed to know had been informed, Aizawa ended the call and let out a long, slow exhale. "We should have noticed sooner."

It was a statement, not a question, but after awhile, Zeref replied anyway.

"I think," he said quietly, "that once people get to a certain age, society expects them to look after themselves. But at the same time, we never really grow out of needing someone to care. I think that's one reason why people like the idea of heroes so much. Heroes try to look out for everyone."

Aizawa stuck his hands in his pockets and, after a moment, asked, "How many?"

"I'm not sure. The news reports on Akiko Kimihara's death only said that she'd been dealing with severe bullying from some of her classmates—or not dealing with, I suppose. Some of the kids are trying to track down any social media records. Natsu and I aren't familiar with things like that."

Zeref paused and inclined his head back towards the interior of the apartment. "Miss Kobayashi was an educated guess based on the police reports from the incident. There were a few more details in those. We need to talk to some of Akiko's former classmates to narrow things down."

Aizawa nodded. "We have a lot of work to do then."

They grew quiet again. Soon, the police should arrive to take over the crime scene. Soon, they'd have to head back towards the school and check in with both the students and faculty. Soon, they'd have to go back to focusing on protecting the living and let the dead go. But for now, they let themselves feel bad about the fact that they had failed to help this woman whose apartment they now stood in and the fact that it had taken the world a whole week to even realize that she was gone.

.

Now that they knew what they were looking for, spotting the feathery, white flowers was easy, even when the blossoms were hidden amongst other white flowerbeds in the small park situated amidst several office buildings. Despite this, Izuku and the others diligently went through the area tree by tree, starting all the way on the opposite side of the garden, and pretended not to notice the single plant that they all knew was probably the one they were looking for.

"Isn't it bad to leave her in there though?" Ochaco asked in a quiet murmur, lightening herself and jumping easily up to the lowest branch of the tree they were working on. They had assigned several students to every tree just to slow the process down as much as possible and make a bigger show of it.

Izuku replied equally quietly. "As long as there aren't any fires like last time, Miss Wendy said she should be fine for a few more days. At this point, we're basically stalling for time. We think the villains are probably watching us—to make sure we're still doing what they wanted us to do."

"So that they can go after the people they're really after," Ochaco finished grimly. "This is all so crazy."

"Yeah, it is," Izuku agreed.

He paused on a neighboring branch to survey his other classmates. This time, they had purposefully chosen some of the most visible students from the Sports Festival to participate in screening the trees, mainly those students that had made it into the one-on-one combat rounds. The less visible people were scattered throughout the surrounding area, searching much more discreetly for a glimpse of either of the plant nursery's owners. There was no actual guarantee that one of them would be nearby, but the chances were pretty good. This was the last hostage they were talking about after all.

"And we don't know who these villains are really after yet?" Ochaco said, half a question and half a statement.

"Well, we think it's some of Akiko's old classmates, but we're not sure which of them yet. Zeref and Mr. Aizawa went to check out a lead this morning, and I think a couple of the class B guys are working with some support course students to scour the Internet and dig through their high school's old records—school papers and that sort of thing."

"So they're taking advantage of the current unrest to pursue revenge," Iida concluded. He sounded solemn, and no wonder. He probably knew at least a little what that felt like.

"That's how it's starting to look anyway," Izuku said. Ironic really. Compared to the other villains they'd run into recently, such a reason was incredibly straightforward. It was probably one of the oldest reasons for violence there was.

Kaminari's voice broke through the grim atmosphere.

"The people in the offices are giving us funny looks," he informed them as he passed by their tree. "I hope you have some excuses ready in case they want us to leave."

Before Izuku could reply, his cell phone buzzed. Distracted, he tugged the device from his pocket and glanced at the screen. The text was from Natsu, and it contained only one word.

' _Dead'_.

It was only one word, but it rested heavily upon the pale rectangle of the screen. Ochaco was right. This whole situation was crazy, and it put a bad taste in his mouth and an uncomfortable twist in his stomach. Hoping none of this showed on his face, he put the phone away and took a deep, steadying breath. At least they knew now what these villains were most likely _really_ after. That meant they had a chance to turn things around before the situation got worse.

They could do this. They could—

"Ah, excuse me. You're all U.A. students, right?"

Izuku jumped a little and turned, tightening his grip on a branch to prevent himself from falling. There was a man watching them from the nearby sidewalk. He was wearing a business suit.

"That's right," Izuku said cautiously.

The man nodded then asked, "Is everything okay? I mean, you've been out here for awhile now, and we were starting to wonder if something was wrong.."

Oops. Izuku had momentarily forgotten about what Kaminari had said about their curious audience. His mind scrambled for a suitable excuse, but before he could come up with anything, Momo came over to join them and offered the man a gracious smile.

"We're very sorry if we're bothering you," she said. "We're just working on a project that involves developing a better understanding of our environment—as part of our summer homework."

That... sounded kind of weak to Izuku, but the man seemed at least satisfied that nothing was amiss—even if he also seemed a bit confused.

"Well, all right then," he said. "Let us know if you need anything."

After he'd gone, Izuku turned to his classmate and said, "Thanks."

Momo shrugged. "It was no trouble. I actually came over to ask if you three wanted to take a break and get something to eat. A few of us could go buy some snacks while the rest keep on working—so we don't seem too relaxed."

Izuku's stomach chose that moment to growl, reminding him that he'd hardly eaten any breakfast,

"Sounds good," he said. "I don't mind going, if you could get me a list of what everybody wants."

"And I'll go with him," Iida volunteered. "We still shouldn't be wandering about alone after all."

"Right. I'll go get everyone's orders."

Five minutes later, the two boys were making their way down the street towards a large convenience store they had passed on their way to the park that morning. There were far more people on the sidewalks now, and all the shops that had been closed before were now open for business. Almost everyone had wanted drinks or snacks of some kind, and they were both carrying bags bulging with everything from cold coffee to rice balls. It was as they turned their feet back the way they had come that they noticed something wrong.

"Hey, Iida," Izuku said slowly, pausing in his tracks. "This is going to sound strange, but was that crosswalk there before?"

The two high school students stood on the corner as the walk light turned green and the crowd around them flowed forward across the path of white stripes.

"I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm not sure," Iida said, frowning. "I do remember crossing the street here though."

Izuku took a moment to reply, scanning the buildings around them and peering ahead towards the next intersection. Or what he was almost positive had been another intersection ten minutes ago.

"That's true, but I'm pretty sure those office buildings weren't there before."

They exchanged wary glances.

"Do you smell anything?" Iida asked, lowering his voice.

"No, but there's a bakery over there. I'm not sure I would have noticed even if I had."

"I don't see any fog either, but I suppose if it was faint, we might not be able to tell in this light," the taller boy muttered.

The hairs prickled on the back of Izuku's neck. Were they being watched? Very likely, but he forced himself not to keep searching the crowd. Instead, he shifted both of his bags to his left hand and pulled out his phone with the right to send a text. That done, he and Iida started across the crosswalk and forward towards the office buildings.

It was a good thing they'd all discussed beforehand what they should do if something like this were to happen to them.

As Izuku and Iida walked, they spoke quietly to one another, trying to lay out what they remembered of the route they had taken. They maybe hadn't been paying as close attention as they should have on their way to the convenience store—a mistake they couldn't make again—but they were new to this area and so, luckily, hadn't been moving on autopilot as many people were wont to do in places they traversed every day. When they reached the first towering, concrete edifice, they hesitated.

It looked very solid.

Izuku gulped and asked, "Ready?"

"Well, the worst that could happen is that people think we're crazy, right?" Iida said.

Right. And Izuku certainly felt a little silly when he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped forward into what appeared to be a building wall. He flinched, half expecting his face to smash into the concrete, but there was nothing. His eyes snapped open, but all he could see was what appeared to be the building's main lobby.

Iida breathed out in relief. "So it is an illusion. You were right."

"This is so bizarre," Izuku muttered. "All right, so we keep going straight for another twenty steps or so. But then we'll have to cross the street. That's going to be dangerous, since we can't see the cars."

"We might be able to go around," Iida suggested. "I'm fairly sure there was a sky bridge that went over that street one block to our left."

"Good idea. I wonder if we can still feel the buildings?"

Izuku scooted carefully to the side and held out his left hand. Even though his eyes saw empty air, his hand encountered something cold and smooth, probably the glass of a store window. Okay, that was helpful.

In this way, moving very slowly and ignoring everything they saw, they felt and edged their way all the way back to the park where the illusion dissipated, leaving them to the concerned questions of their classmates and the puzzled stares of curious passersby.

While Iida explained to the others what had happened, Izuku checked his messages. It looked like none of the other students in the area had noticed anything. Well, other than Izuku and Iida themselves acting oddly. But hey, you had more important things to worry about than whether or not your actions looked funny when you were in danger of being run over by cars you couldn't see. It would have been hard anyway, with how many people were out and about now. But judging from this, it was likely that the villains were looking for another potential hostage, most likely to buy themselves more time.

Damn. He should probably let the grownups know.

Wait a second, but if the villains were trying to get more time, that meant they hadn't killed all their intended targets yet. So this was actually a good thing.

.

Zeref didn't think he would ever get used to these meetings, and not just because he didn't have them very often.

The conference room was a fairly spacious one, but it still managed to feel cramped when all the participating members of the faculty had to squeeze around one half of the oblong table. Under other circumstances, the sight might have been funny. But as things stood, at large meetings like these in a room full of adults, the line of red tape spanning the tabletop always felt extra vivid and especially conspicuous. The faint traces of dark fog that hung in the air around Zeref as a result of his current discomfort did _not_ help. The curiosity from the U.A. teachers was almost palpable.

Zeref wished Natsu was here with him, but his partner had headed out after Izuku called in to report on what had happened to him and Iida and it would be awhile before he was able to return. The last he'd heard, his partner was working with the U.A. students who had been surveying the area to track down where Kimihara had been during the incident and map out everyone's exact locations in relation to that. By coordinating everyone's vantage points and experiences, they would, in theory, be able to estimate the effective range of Kimihara's Quirk.

Stop thinking about them and just focus on the job, Zeref reminded himself. That was the only reason he was here after all.

"Jenny Mikaka and the other two students that are still alive, they don't have much in common aside from the fact that they're all hero course students," he explained. "However, the first two—the students that were found dead—they're another story. While both were relatively popular in their respective schools, there's reason to believe that they also engaged a good deal in bullying some of their less well-liked classmates. We believe that's actually the main reason those two were killed, and that the one responsible for those deaths was Misaki Yamada. The way those murders were done matches with what her Quirk appears to be. According to her past coworkers, she had—has—a tendency to be secretive and impulsive. It's likely that the first two deaths were just rash decisions on her part, and the shift in how the victims were handled reflects more Kimihara's involvement and goals. He's fairly obviously the more calculating of the two."

"So basically," a dark-haired woman he recalled went by the name Midnight drawled, leaning back in her chair, "your theory is that the first death at least was unplanned, whereas the last three kidnappings were Kimihara's idea to capitalize on the current unrest in order to execute a plan for revenge on the people he holds responsible for his sister's death."

"Basically, yes."

The principal placed his paws together before him on the conference table. "It's not a bad plan. Because of the recent incident with Stain, everyone's focused on heroes. The death and disappearance of hero course students would draw even more attention now than it usually would. It's an easy way to hold the attention of both the public and pro heroes, distracting them from the bigger picture of other crimes and downplaying their significance."

"Which also explains why they chose to issue their so-called challenge to U.A. students," Aizawa added. "As the leading hero training program in Japan, it's a surefire way of grabbing people's attention, especially the attention of pros."

"But then the question is, who should we be protecting?" Present Mic demanded, his voice, naturally loud even when he wasn't trying, making Zeref wince.

Zeref extracted a photograph from the pile of documents in front of him and slid it across the table. The action was made more difficult by the distance between himself and the nearest faculty member. The photograph stopped short of the red line, and All Might reached out to pull it across to where everyone else could get a good look at it. Zeref was silently grateful for how casually the man did this, not drawing any attention to the reason such an action had been needed in the first place.

"The police and some of the students are working on identifying other possibilities, but we believe this woman is very likely one of their real targets."

"Why her in particular?" Cementoss asked.

Zeref explained, "Her name is Mina Sato. She's currently a teacher at another hero school. During that fire and the incident at the park where we found the second abductee, Natsu interrupted what we think was a kidnapping attempt on a girl that turned out to be this woman's daughter. We've also confirmed that she was also one of Akiko Kimihara's old classmates."

The more crowded side of the room burst into a heated discussion, and Zeref sat back to listen. Whatever they chose to do next, they would have to do everything they could to make sure Kimihara didn't know they were onto him. Still thinking about this, Zeref flipped back through his papers, turning his attention to what lay ahead of them.

Zeref eventually excused himself, and the rest of the room paused to watch him go.

After the door had closed behind him, Midnight commented thoughtfully, "I have to say, he doesn't look all that threatening when you don't know what his Quirk does."

There was a murmur of agreement amongst the other teachers. Of course, all of them knew that appearances could be deceiving, but it wasn't just the boy's appearance or the way he carried himself. He was obviously clever and he was handling his work with efficient professionalism, but there was also something... quietly melancholic about him.

Even though Zeref was gone, none of the teachers made a move to spread out into the newly vacated space. And although they didn't talk about it, they wondered what it would take to create a world where abilities like his would not be called upon.

.

Zeref had made it all the way back to their current living quarters when his phone began to buzz erratically, announcing the arrival of a slew of text messages. He went to open the window while he waited for the buzzing to stop. His eye was caught by a flock of birds as they took off from the trees below, and he paused to watch them.

He still hadn't had the opportunity to ask Natsu for more school stories, now that they were on campus and Zeref could actually see the places that his partner had described for him.

Pushing the stray thought away, he pulled his phone from his pocket. It looked like most of the texts were from Inspector Ishikawa and that detective, Keiko Shinra, although there were a few from Natsu too. Scrolling back to the beginning of the list, Zeref went still.

' _Chizuru Sato, age 11, missing.'_

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

.


	10. True Targets

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **10\. True Targets**

" _Don't ask if you can. Say you will."_

 _~ Shota Aizawa, My Hero Academia, season 3 episode 15_

There were a lot of advantages to being invisible, but at times like these, Toru Hagakure really, really wished that her Quirk had just one more feature—the ability to make the clothes she wore invisible too. For anyone else, standing stark naked in the open-air hallways of a high-rise apartment building would have drawn no end of unwanted attention. But for Hagakure, it was the only way to go completely unnoticed.

Life was weird like that sometimes.

"Um, are you still there?" Detective Keiko Shinra asked out of the corner of her mouth as she shifted her grip on the perforated sheets of coupons she held and lifted her hand towards the doorbell.

Hagakure let out an involuntary, nervous laugh and quickly stifled it. "Still here."

The plain-clothes police detective made a visible effort to keep her face straight. "Sorry I have to keep asking. I just want to make sure I haven't lost you."

"No biggie. I mean, that's why I'm here, right?"

Right.

The detective took a deep breath then pressed down on the doorbell, just as she had done for every apartment along the corridor so far. This time, however, it wasn't to deliver a fake request for donations in exchange for coupons.

The woman who answered the door looked exhausted. Worry had etched deep lines into her face, and there were dark circles under her pale brown eyes. Those eyes, slightly watery and bloodshot, focused on Detective Shinra.

"Can I help you?"

Anxiety had added several years to Mina Sato's appearance, Hagakure thought, at least judging from the photograph of her she had been shown.

Keiko gave the woman a practiced smile. "Hi, I'm helping out with a fundraiser for a local arts program, and I was wondering if you'd be interested in these?"

"I don't..." Mina started then trailed off when she saw what her visitor held out to her.

Keiko had shuffled the coupons so that the top sheet was one that had a sticky note attached to its front.

 _I'm with the police_ , the note said. _We know you're in trouble. There's a hero student with me who's going to talk to you. She's invisible._

Next to the detective, Hagakure held her breath. The woman's gaze flickered over the message again then up at Keiko. Slowly, the stiffness of her shoulders eased just a fraction and she swung the front door wider before holding out her hand.

"May I have a closer look?"

Keiko handed her one of the coupon sheets—not the one with the sticky note—and Hagakure took advantage of the open doorway to slip past Mina Sato and into the apartment.

In the time it took for the undercover police detective and Mina Sato to finish their fake exchange about coupons and the benefits of art programs for students, Hagakure was able to glance around the short entrance hall and peer through the open doorways into the living room and kitchen. It looked, as far as she could tell, like a fairly typical, middleclass home, clean and well-furnished with the smell of coffee still lingering in the air and a profusion of framed photographs upon the walls.

The few minutes that it took for Mina and Keiko to finish their polite exchange felt like an eternity. When the front door finally swung shut once more, however, Hagakure found herself wishing that they'd made their fake conversation last just a bit longer. Slowly, the older woman turned, scanning the entrance hall on reflex even though she knew she wouldn't be able to see her visitor. Hagakure shifted her weight from foot to foot, wishing yet again for some clothes, even though technically, in her case, it didn't make a difference. It was the principle of the thing.

Mina spoke first. "So... you're a hero course student?"

"That's right."

At Hagakure's reply, the woman turned her head in her general direction and asked, "How did you know that my daughter was missing?"

 _Here we go_ , Hagakure thought, and took a deep breath.

"We had a strong suspicion that someone would be coming after you."

"He said not to contact the police," Mina said tensely, the hand she hadn't yet removed from the doorknob tightening in agitation.

A cold prickle raced down Hagakure's spine. "So the kidnapper contacted you?"

"He... slipped a note under my door." Inhaling shakily, the woman gave her head a hard shake then gestured through the living room doorway. "Please, have a seat. I'll go get it."

.

Zeref leaned against the low railing that enclosed the rooftop to survey the surrounding cityscape. The building in question wasn't a skyscraper or anything, but it had at least five stories and afforded a more than decent view.

"So this is what a city looks like with no people," he mused aloud, glancing from deserted street to dark window to empty doorway. "Where does this school get the funds to build these places?"

"That's always the question," Natsu said, joining him at the edge of the roof and slinging an arm around his shoulders. "Impressive, huh?"

"Very."

Natsu had told him about these training areas before, of course. They played a major role in the lives of U.A. students, especially those in the hero and sometimes the support courses. However, hearing about them and actually seeing them like this were two very different things.

As if on cue, an explosion sounded two blocks away followed by a column of smoke rising skyward like some signal to remind them that the fake city wasn't entirely deserted after all.

Zeref turned his head slightly to give his partner a curious look. "Aren't you supposed to be supervising?"

"I _am_ supervising," Natsu protested, gesturing with his free hand to indicate the ear that Zeref couldn't see.

Zeref assumed that meant he was wearing a communicator of some kind.

"But I'm also supposed to keep an eye on you. Anyway, they're just blowing off steam with some practice using their Quirks."

Zeref hummed in response. Personally, practicing his Quirk was one of his least favorite activities, but he supposed it was different for most other people. Especially as children and teenagers, most people had fun trying out their abilities, and that was probably even more true for a bunch of teenagers who planned on becoming pro heroes.

That wasn't to say he ever shirked on Quirk training. It was far too important to improve what control he actually had over it after all. He took it very seriously. He just didn't enjoy it much, and it definitely wasn't his go-to for "blowing off steam" as Natsu put it.

Zeref could remember only one practice where he'd been at all amused. Natsu, Sting, and Rogue had been practicing how to use their other senses to compensate when Zeref's black fog was intense enough to make using their vision impossible. That entire first practice session, the dark training room had been full of arguments.

" _Hey, pay attention! That was my foot!"_

" _Ow, who's dumb idea was it to put a table in here?"_

" _That should be a chair, not a table."_

" _It's not a dumb idea! What good is it if we can't deal with having a bit of furniture around?"_

" _Ugh, what is this? A bucket? These things have almost no smell. There's no way we can figure out all the furniture or whatever in a place this way."_

" _Nah, I think what we need to do is remember how the place looked before it all went dark, and then work from memory."_

That practice had ended when Zeref lost control and the fog dissipated. It was difficult to maintain it at that opacity when he wasn't feeling horribly depressed or upset. And frankly, listening to the three Dragon Slayers' antics just made him want to laugh.

For a minute longer, they just stood like that, listening to the breeze over the rooftops and the distant sound of the students who were using the empty city training field. Then Zeref sighed and slipped from under his partner's arm to sit down before the laptop he'd left open on the ground a few steps away.

"They've decided to start separating Jenny Mikaka from the tree she's trapped in rather than waiting to see if we can capture Yamada. Kyoka and a few others are there helping with that operation now. I think it's the right decision. Even if it would be less risky to get Shinso to tell her to help, at this rate, it's hard to say if we'll have that opportunity."

"Yeah, I get that." Natsu glanced over his shoulder at the screen, noting the e-mails open on one side and the numerous maps that covered the other. "Hear from that invisible girl yet?"

"Hagakure," Zeref reminded him. "And not yet. It's not going to go that quickly. It's not like she could bring a phone or anything with her."

"I wonder if tech support could do anything about that," Natsu mused. "Or it's damned inconvenient for her, you know?"

"I'll say." Zeref tilted the screen back so that Natsu could see the markings on the maps more clearly. "The police have been helping me with tracking the locations of those strange flowers. I think we can use them to isolate possible places where Yamada might be hiding."

Natsu glanced over the images and nodded. "She's not all that subtle a person, so that should help too."

"That's what I'm hoping certainly."

Natsu studied the map a moment longer then straightened and said, "Come on, you should move to a closer rooftop. You can watch them practice, and I can practice with them and watch you at the same time."

Zeref tilted his head back so he could look up at his partner. "You want to practice with them?"

Natsu grinned—a flash of abnormally sharp teeth. "Yeah, why not, right? I have an idea, and it would be good for us to have a feel for how they work."

Zeref blinked slowly then lowered his chin and shifted to gather the laptop up in his arms before standing up. Right, they'd be including the kids more than they had originally planned. These high school students were already too tangled up in this case, and there was the benefit that they were likely to be underestimated.

It didn't take long to relocate him to a different building, close enough this time that Zeref could see Natsu and the small gathering of students on a nearby street corner.

"Here's what I propose," he could hear Natsu's cheerful voice drifting up to him. "We're going to play freeze tag—with a catch."

"Uh, what kind of catch?"

"Well, in regular freeze tag, you can get unfrozen if you get tagged by one of your non-frozen teammates. We're simply adding a few more rules. Sero, you can shoot tape, right? You'll be the first tagger. Every two minutes, I'll join as a tagger for thirty seconds. If I tag someone who is still frozen, that person becomes a tagger also. On the other hand, if you manage to incapacitate a tagger, then that person becomes a regular player. We'll use this city block and all the buildings in it as our playing field, so feel free to hide too. You got all that?"

Izuku raised his hand and asked, "So basically, our goal is to capture the taggers?"

"While not getting tagged yourselves," Natsu agreed. "But—and this is important—for people like Sero here who have physical Quirks, you are considered tagged even if it's just his tape that touches you."

There was a pause, and then someone—Zeref couldn't tell who from his spot on the rooftop—asked, "Uh, but in that case, how are we supposed to incapacitate him?"

"I'm sure you'll figure that out."

"And so... if we can incapacitate you, we wouldn't have to worry about the number of taggers growing bigger...?"

That was Izuku again.

Natsu's grin widened, wolfish and razor sharp. "Great point, and you're all welcome to try. But as a heads up, I'm not the best at pulling my punches, although I'll compromise by not using my Quirk. Well, the parts that I can turn off anyway."

Zeref shook his head and looked back at his laptop. Natsu was having way too much fun with this. For that matter, so were the kids. It seemed almost inappropriate considering what their missing classmates were working on. Then again... maybe a bit of fun was a good thing in times like these.

For a few minutes, Zeref tried to continue working while he listened to the cacophony of battle cries, shrieks of shock, laughter, and occasional cries of pain. He'd always been good at concentrating and shutting out distractions, but there was something about Natsu's mad, gleeful cackle that always got to him. Finally, he gave up and moved to sit where he could watch the freeze tag battle raging through the buildings across the makeshift street. He was a fast worker. He could afford to take a break too.

.

"Uh, what happened to you guys?" Kyoka asked, raising an eyebrow at the students draped and slumped about the half of their classroom closest to the door.

"Freeze tag," came the exhausted chorus of replies.

Kyoka's eyebrows rose even higher, but after a brief deliberation, she decided not to comment further. Considering the people in her class, she could imagine how that might have gone down.

Their usual classroom had been rearranged for this particular meeting. The desks and chairs had been shunted around to leave more space around the desks by the far wall. Then there was the line of red tape that now ran along the floor.

On the side of the room that had been designated for his use, Zeref kept glancing around like he found it an incredibly novel experience to be sitting in a regular, high school classroom. Then again, it probably _had_ been years since the dark-haired young man had attended a normal school of any kind.

Everyone quickly grew focused, however, when Hagakure cleared her throat from the front of the room. Slowly, they all quieted and straightened in their seats.

The invisible girl fidgeted from her spot by the whiteboard. Or rather, her clothes shifted about in a manner that they assumed meant she was feeling a little put on the spot.

"Right, so here's the thing," she said, facing them. "Mrs. Sato got a letter telling her that if she wants her daughter to survive, she has to go to a certain place and complete a task. Um, the place—it's a shopping mall. A busy one, if I'm remembering correctly. Detective Shinra and I went to check it out on our way back."

"Do we know if it was from Kimihara?" Izuku asked.

"Not a hundred percent," Hagakure admitted, "but the chances are pretty good. No one saw anything around her apartment during the time frame in which the letter was delivered, but a surveillance camera at a nearby convenience store caught footage of a man who looks a lot like him. And a few people remember seeing fog that day."

A mutter rippled through the class.

Todoroki asked, "So when is the meeting supposed to happen?"

"Noon the day after tomorrow."

"Noon?" Izuku frowned. "That's strange. The mall will probably be super crowded then."

"Do you think the girl will be there?" Ochaco asked. "Chizuru, wasn't it?"

There was a long moment of silence while all of them thought about this, then Momo said, "I don't think so. He seems too careful. He chose such a crowded place, it's always possible nearby heroes will see something—notice something's wrong and intervene. If he wants Mrs. Sato to do something, it would probably make more sense on his part for him to hide the girl somewhere until it's done, just to make sure she follows through and doesn't try anything."

"Which means that Chizuru will most likely be with his accomplice," Izuku concluded.

This led to another burst of discussion.

Natsu paced along the perimeter marked by the red tape while he talked. "If we can figure out where the child is before that meeting, we should be able to rescue her and get Kimihara at the same time. We'll need to put together two teams and make sure we time things right..."

Zeref remained quiet while he listened to the rest of them move full swing into planning. Mostly, there was a lot of discussion about Quirks and who might be more suitable for dealing with their two respective adversaries. Of course, that was only to be expected, but it was still interesting, probably because Zeref had never really been part of such a discussion before. His own Quirk wasn't designed for working in large groups.

There wasn't much agreement on who should do what or how large each team should be. Whoever went after the kidnapped girl, would have to be stealthy, so a smaller number would be more ideal, but they would also need someone as backup who could fight large-scale against Yamada and her plants. Then there was Kimihara and his hallucinogenic mist.

"Why don't we just wear gas masks?"

"Weren't you listening, Kaminari? We're supposed to not stand out. How do you think it's going to look if we all walk into a mall wearing gas masks? And we still don't actually know how his Quirk works or what else he might be able to do."

"I guess that's true. We should still have gas masks as backup though. I mean, it's got to be better than nothing."

"Actually," Natsu cut into the conversation, "most of you aren't going to be there. You've all recently been on TV, remember? Which means you're recognizable. We'll be keeping both groups to a minimum, and the rest of you should keep making yourselves visible elsewhere with the trees—just in case."

There was some argument over this, but the matter wasn't up for negotiation. After awhile, the students turned to exactly which of them, then, would be the most useful.

"Which reminds me," Natsu said eventually. "From what I saw during the fire that day we were at the park, we can burn off the mist if we need to."

"So then, Todoroki should be in the group that goes to the meeting," Momo said.

"Yeah, maybe." Natsu stopped pacing and waved at the classroom door. "Let's move this to one of the training rooms. Todoroki, I want to get a look at your Quirk."

Zeref remained seated until the students had filed out and Natsu stopped by the desk he had appropriated.

"You seem preoccupied."

Zeref shook his head. "It's just interesting, listening to all of you discuss different Quirks that work better or worse for fighting other Quirks."

He hesitated then glanced up at his partner. Natsu wasn't going to like what else he had to say. The Dragon Slayer watched him expectantly, knowing that that wasn't all that Zeref had been thinking about, but after a moment, the dark-haired boy looked away again and stood up. He could say what he needed to say later when there wasn't a bunch of students waiting for them.

"So where is this training room?"

.

It was probably one of the school's most simple training rooms, containing no furniture or landscaping whatsoever—nothing like the city they'd all been practicing in before. Instead, the room was simply one large, rectangular space with concrete flooring and a narrow balcony running along all four walls where students and teachers could observe what was happening below. Most of Class 1A was on that overhead walkway now, their attention focused upon the two figures standing on the floor in the middle of the training room. Zeref, too, had chosen a spot among the spectators, sitting by the railing and looking through the bars.

"You haven't been using that fire of yours for very long, have you?" Natsu was saying.

Todoroki blinked, obviously startled by the question.

The Dragon Slayer continued before he could respond. "I noticed it during the Sports Festival. Guess I forgot to mention it before, but my element is fire, so it was easy for me to tell that you haven't had nearly as much practical experience with it as you have with your ice."

To emphasize his point, flames burst suddenly into life around him. Several students gasped. Zeref smiled a little to himself at their reactions. His partner rarely got to show off the flashier aspects of his powers this way.

Natsu let the flames flicker out almost as quickly as he'd summoned them.

"Fire can't hurt me, and I'm pretty much immune to both hot and cold temperatures." Natsu shrugged, dismissing any further details on his Quirk, and gestured at Todoroki. "Right, so show me what you've got. You'll need to refine your fire-wielding skills if you want to be able to use them to cancel out Kimihara's illusions without putting anyone in danger. You're going to need something a lot different from blasting attacks."

Sensing movement to his left, Zeref turned his head, his eyes immediately moving to gauge the distance between himself and the student who had taken the spot by the railing nearest to him.

Noticing his sudden attention, Tokoyami coughed. "Sorry, is this too close?"

"A bit," Zeref said. He tapped one of the bars in front of him. "Four more of these please."

Tokoyami glanced at the bars and moved to his left by four.

Zeref relaxed, but didn't look back down into the room. Instead, his attention was focused on the smoky, birdlike creature peering over the boy's shoulder. As though sensing his scrutiny, the thing shifted its gaze from the floor below to glower at him and snap, "What are you staring at?"

Zeref just blinked and replied earnestly, "I find you rather interesting."

The creature inflated as though his words had offended it. "What's that supposed to mean, you—"

Hastily, Tokoyami shushed it and apologized.

Zeref waved him off and informed him, voice thoughtful, "I like your Quirk. You always have someone to talk to."

"Um, thank you?" That wasn't what most people liked best about Dark Shadow, but then, Tokoyami supposed this young man wasn't quite like most people.

"Keep in mind," Natsu's voice drifted up to them, "that fire is a powerfully destructive element. If you're not careful, you can hurt your allies just as easily as you hurt your enemies. Unlike ice, it's volatile and constantly in motion. And if it's intense enough, it'll devour just about anything. You can't think about it simply as something that you create or control. Guess you could say it doesn't appreciate that any more than you would. You have to learn to think about it as an extension of yourself—you know, like those weapons teachers are always telling their students in fantasy novels."

"...I'm not sure that I do."

On the far walkway, Izuku and a handful of his classmates divided their attention between the impromptu lesson below and an open notebook.

"I'm good at stealth," Hagakure noted, peering over her classmate's shoulder at the chart he'd drawn up, "so maybe I should go with the retrieval team?"

"Maybe," Izuku agreed, adding her name to the list of possible candidates on the left. "But we might be better off going for speed. I'm worried about how much she can sense through her plants. And some of her plants might be poisonous, which is also a concern."

Ochaco made a thoughtful sound in her throat. "Well, if it's speed we want, then Iida should go. And what about Su? You guys said the vines in her apartment were all over the place, right? It might help to have someone who can stick to walls."

"That's a good point..."

They were all tired and jittery by the time the sky began to darken and Zeref reminded them all that they had to head home.

"Like any of us are going to be able to sleep after this," Kaminari grumbled.

The others agreed. With all this new information they had to work with, it was tempting to forgo sleep entirely in favor of trying to get this case over with sooner. Unfortunately, humans weren't built to work nonstop without rest, and anyway, their parents would worry if they failed to return home at a reasonable hour.

"Oi, make sure you group up to walk home if no one's coming to pick you up," Natsu reminded them as the students traipsed back towards their classroom to retrieve their things.

Zeref would have headed for the elevator to return to their own quarters, but Natsu stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Can you wait in the lobby and make sure none of them decide to slip out alone?"

Zeref blinked. "Of course, but where will you be?"

"I'm just going to get my wallet from upstairs."

Zeref turned this reply over in his head then asked, "Are we going somewhere?"

"Yup, as soon as the kids are gone. We can get dinner at the same time. So just give me a second."

With that vague answer, Natsu was gone, jogging away down the hall. Zeref watched him go then shook his head and made his careful way to the lobby where he stationed himself against the wall where he had a clear view of the front doors.

The students began to trickle out into the early evening in twos and threes, waving goodbye to him as they did so. Zeref kept a mental count of who had gone and who should still be left. He was just starting to wonder why Natsu wasn't back yet when a woman he didn't recognize came walking up the wide, brick path before the school. She hesitated outside the doors then pushed one open and stepped inside.

"Excuse me," Zeref said, raising his voice so she would hear him but not moving away from the wall. "Can I help you with something? It's rather late for visitors."

To her credit, the stranger didn't seem guilty or anything. Instead, the smile she gave him was stuttering and anxious.

"I'm just here to pick up my son, Izuku. Do you know if he's ready to go yet?"

"He shouldn't be long," Zeref assured her.

He tilted his head, studying her with curiosity. Now that she mentioned it, he supposed he could see a slight resemblance in her features.

"Does his Quirk take after yours?" Zeref asked after a moment of awkward silence. He couldn't imagine this woman throwing kicks and punches the way her son did, but you could never be sure. Stranger things had happened.

"Oh no." She laughed a little. "I can float small objects, but that's it."

"His father then?"

"Now that you mention it, I'm not sure where in the family Izuku's Quirk comes from. My husband can breathe fire, but he's never shown any kind of super strength. For the longest time, we thought Izuku wouldn't develop a Quirk at all."

"I see." Well, that was interesting.

A puzzled frown creased the woman's forehead, like his questions had troubled her. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything, but it was too late to take the words back.

Attempting to lighten the mood, Zeref added, "My partner can breathe fire too."

"Oh, um, that's... good?"

Luckily, Izuku, Ochaco, and Iida entered the lobby at that moment and saved them from trying to make further small talk. Zeref bid the four of them goodnight and watched them go, his gaze lingering on the back of Izuku's head.

It wasn't unheard of for a person's Quirk to be completely unrelated to any of the other Quirks in their family. Zeref himself was a good example of that. But it _was_ extremely rare, and he couldn't help but wonder if there was a story there.

Then again, he thought as Natsu finally appeared in the lobby and ushered him outside, if Izuku hadn't even told his parents the story... Well, everyone was entitled to a few secrets.

.

"Izuku, who was that young man? Is he one of your teachers?"

Izuku started and glanced over at his mother. It took him a moment to remember who she was talking about and then another moment to decide what to tell her.

"He's part of the staff," he lied.

"Oh." His mother looked puzzled. "That's strange. I thought everyone on the staff at U.A. was a pro hero, but I didn't recognize him. Of course, I suppose there are a lot of heroes out there."

Izuku laughed and hoped he didn't sound too nervous. "Yeah, he, er, wasn't very popular, so it's not too surprising if you don't recognize him."

Silently, Izuku grimaced at the thought of how many lies he'd had to tell since starting high school. And to think he'd always been such an honest person before. Maybe it was excusable because they were all secrets that needed to remain secrets for good reason, but it still made him a little uncomfortable.

Iida cleared his throat. "Thank you, ma'am, for walking with us. I know it's a little out of your way."

His attempt to change the subject succeeded, and when Izuku's mother turned to answer him, Izuku mouthed a soundless "thank you" over her shoulder. The taller boy nodded his head ever so slightly.

Honestly, they had bigger things to worry about right now than the lies Izuku had to tell his mother.

.

Aizawa glanced up at the name of the restaurant above the tinted glass doors, comparing it with the name that Zeref had texted him about half an hour ago. Around him, the mall bustled with activity. It was the same mall that Mina Sato was scheduled to have a meeting at in two days, and "busy" was a serious understatement. Still, that had nothing to do with the bad feeling he had about what awaited him in the quiet diner.

The restaurant in question was only one of dozens scattered throughout the mall. It wasn't one of the most popular ones, judging from the lack of a queue outside its doors, but neither was it deserted. That made it a perfect choice for Natsu and Zeref on the rare occasions that they ate out like this—not so many people that it made Zeref nervous, but not so few that it made them too easy to remember.

In this case, what kind of food it served was a secondary concern. But as it turned out, it was a curry restaurant, and the spicy aroma of curry and freshly cooked rice filled the air when he stepped inside.

No one gave Aizawa a second glance as he made his way past their tables. There were advantages to being unremarkable, and honestly, once you swapped their hero costumes for regular, casual clothes, most heroes would look little different from your average passerby.

Aizawa arrived at the corner booth that Natsu and Zeref had appropriated for themselves to find the pair looking over a collection of flyers.

"It looks like that ice cream parlor sells their own tubs of ice cream," Zeref was saying.

"That's great. We can buy some after this to bring home."

"We should pick flavors beforehand. Hmmm, it's too bad that museum isn't open this late."

"We could visit anyway," Natsu said, voice far too thoughtful for such words.

"Natsu, we are not breaking into a museum after hours just so I can see the exhibits."

"You should listen to him," Aizawa said, shuffling into the booth across from them. "I know the two of you have some leeway on these things, but make sure you don't get carried away and take things too far."

Natsu grinned. "Hey, teach, I have no idea what you're talking about. We never get carried away."

"Right," Aizawa said, letting the tone of his voice convey just how much he did not agree with that statement. "Just remember that breaking and entering is a crime. It doesn't matter that you don't steal or destroy anything."

"Okay, okay." Natsu sighed, although his expression was utterly unrepentant.

Aizawa regarded him flatly, then shook his head and picked up the menu. On the bright side, he could count on Zeref to put a stop to anything too crazy that Natsu decided they should do. Yes, Zeref tended to cave easily in regards to anything Natsu really wanted, but he also had a much stronger belief in staying within the boundaries of the law.

The two younger men had already placed their orders, but when the waitress spotted the new arrival, she came over to ask Aizawa what he wanted and to bring him a glass of water. After she had gone, Aizawa looked across the table at Zeref and raised an eyebrow.

"So? You didn't call me out here just so we could all eat dinner together."

Natsu raised an eyebrow too and looked at his partner. "We didn't?"

"We're here because you wanted to scout out this mall before you came back out tomorrow to shadow the kids and give them their chance to explore it," Zeref pointed out. "Which leads me to what I wanted to talk about."

He paused, glanced away towards the windows at the front of the shop, then looked back at Natsu and announced, "I think I should go with the team that goes to retrieve the child."

Natsu frowned. "I don't know. Kimihara seems too dangerous for the kids to handle themselves, and he'll have an eye out for the pros."

"I know, which is why I also think that you should still be at the meeting here at the mall."

Silence.

Ah, Aizawa thought, glancing between the two of them. So that's why he'd had misgivings about this. Zeref had called him here to be backup.

"You know I can't let you go by yourself," Natsu said, any trace of humor from earlier gone to leave only seriousness.

"I was thinking," Zeref replied, turning to catch Aizawa's gaze, "that maybe you could go with me?"

Natsu looked from his partner to Aizawa then back again. The corners of his mouth turned down in a stubborn frown, but Zeref hurried to speak again before he could.

"Your Quirk is ideal for facing Kimihara, whereas Mr. Aizawa would never be able to be one hundred percent certain that he was even looking at the right person."

Zeref shot the school teacher an apologetic glance for that, but well, it was true. Actually, Aizawa found it somewhat amusing that the boy thought he might be offended by such a suggestion.

"As for me," Zeref continued, "my Quirk would allow me to fight Yamada's plants without fear of damaging any building or structure she might be using as a hideout."

"I think I have to agree with him on this one," Aizawa said, tapping his fingers lightly against the cool glass of his water cup. "I should be able to go, and I'll make sure to keep a low profile. Maybe change up some of my equipment."

Natsu still looked disgruntled by this turn of events, but he wasn't an impulsive teenager anymore and he could recognize a reasonable plan when he heard one. Besides, at this point, he could be fairly certain that his partner could take care of himself in a fight. However...

"Fine," Natsu said, "but you'll have to talk carefully with all the students you end up going with about how to work with you without getting themselves killed. They can't afford any accidents, and I don't want you getting hurt either because you can't risk using your Quirk."

Zeref nodded and pushed down the anxiety he felt at this.

Aizawa sighed and leaned back in his seat, glad that the matter had been settled with so little argument. He didn't have the energy to deal with his former student's notorious obstinacy and overprotective tendencies, and besides, he could see their waitress coming over with their food. Natsu noticed the woman too and grinned.

"Smells like the curry's going to be excellent. I wonder why this place doesn't have more customers."

"Maybe we're just early," Zeref said, glancing out the front windows. "It looks like all the restaurants are starting to get more customers."

Which was their cue to stop talking about serious matters and move back into more casual, conversational territory. When he'd first become a teacher, Aizawa thought ruefully, he would never have guessed that purposeful, casual conversation would become a part of his job description. But then, that was the thing about teaching that kept it interesting. Everyone was so different. Which reminded him...

"So, I'm curious," Aizawa said, inclining his head towards Zeref, "how do you like working with the kids?"

.

Izuku was in his room when his cell phone rang. He jumped and almost fell out of his chair, the ring jarring him out of his thoughts. Before him on his desk lay the chart he and his classmates had sketched out that afternoon—two lists of names.

Izuku glanced at the clock as he answered, eyes widening a little when he read the numbers. Midnight? He hadn't realized just how late it was.

Who would be calling him at this hour?

"Hello?"

"This is Midoriya, yes?"

Izuku's eyebrows rose in surprise when he recognized Zeref's voice.

"Er, yeah. Can I help you with something?"

"Actually, I thought you might be working on the teams, so I wanted to let you know..."

Zeref conveyed what he, Natsu, and Mr. Aizawa had discussed over dinner. Izuku could see the logic in it and asked only a few questions. When Zeref had finished his explanation, there was a pause, and then hesitantly, Zeref said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Huh?"

"Do I still make all of you uncomfortable?"

Izuku blinked and leaned back in his chair. That was an uncomfortable question in itself, but he decided not to point this out.

"And please be honest," Zeref added.

Izuku shut his mouth on what he'd been about to say and tried to give the question the consideration it deserved.

"Well," he said finally, "to be honest, I'm not sure. I think it's not so much you as your Quirk that makes people a bit uncomfortable. But you kind of make it a bit easier sometimes too—not to be uncomfortable, I mean. I'm sure that with more time..."

Izuku trailed off. He waited for Zeref to say more, but the other only made a thoughtful sound before thanking him and asking if Izuku had any further questions.

After Zeref had hung up, Izuku looked back down at his chart, wondering what that had been about. Then, with a shake of his head to clear it, he picked up his pencil and crossed Hagakure's name off the list for the rescue team. The last thing they needed was Zeref trying to work with a teammate he couldn't see.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

 **AN** : I hope you're all taking care of yourselves with the virus issue going around. It's crazy how much of life it's affecting. Just a reminder to:

1\. Wash your hands with soap and water frequently

2\. Avoid touching your face with your hands

3\. Make sure you get enough sleep to keep your immune system healthy

4\. Drink plenty of water

.


	11. Third Interlude

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail or My Hero Academia

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu x Zeref

 **GENERAL WARNINGS: violence, shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

* * *

 **The Things We Dream**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **11\. Third Interlude**

" _You don't always know you have a passion for something until you start doing it. You don't have to have strong feelings about it, or be on some kind of mission from day one. Sometimes, the things you fall into by chance turn out to be the most important ones of all. As long as you go into it with a tiny bit of wonder, you're all set."_

 _~ Kiyoko Shimizu, Haikyu, season 2 episode 3_

Zeref's search for new hobbies had begun with yarn...

" _You're learning to knit?" Natsu asked, slightly incredulous. He stood just inside the apartment's front door and hadn't yet removed his shoes. "Why?"_

" _It's apparently very popular these days, especially among people with high-stress jobs. It's supposed to be relaxing and productive."_

 _Natsu raised an eyebrow, looking at the square of neat, ivory stitches. His partner tended to be quite good at most things he really put his mind to, but all the same, "I've never seen you wear anything in traditional_

 _yarn. Do you even like knitted clothes?"_

 _Where he sat on the pale blue couch, Zeref looked down at the bundle of yarn and considered it. "Not really. It tends to be too scratchy for me, and washing it can be complicated. Do you like knitted clothes?"_

" _Nope."_

" _Hmmm, maybe I should try something else then."_

...But he took a few days to complete the simple scarf he had started anyway. He didn't like leaving things unfinished. The end product was still in their closet somewhere, neatly folded and never worn.

Zeref's foray into music hadn't lasted much longer. He wasn't a natural musician, and he had a very, very limited selection of potential teachers...

" _Well," Natsu said grudgingly, "Gajeel plays the guitar, and he might know some things about other instruments too."_

 _Zeref thought of the often grouchy Dragon Slayer and sighed. "No, that's okay."_

...It wasn't like he was in any great hurry. Life wasn't a race, after all. Their first year had taught them that it was okay—even important—sometimes to slow down.

In the meantime, Natsu taught him to play ping pong, and Zeref started to watch some of the athletic competitions that his partner liked to watch on television, including the annual U.A. Sports Festival that he'd only bothered with before when Natsu was playing in them.

And, of course, you never knew what might happen in the meantime...

 _If there was one thing Zeref really liked about their apartment, aside from the large windows and amazing view, it was how bright the entire apartment was. With the window curtains pulled aside, morning light flooded the living room and gleamed atop the granite counters of the kitchenette in the corner. On mornings like this when they didn't have anywhere to be and didn't feel like going anywhere, he enjoyed just sitting by the window with a mug of coffee, watching the flow of traffic in the streets below and listening to something mindless on the television. Today, he'd left it on a music channel with the volume turned down low. He sort of wished he could hear the distant sounds of the city and the twitter of birds, but they were far too high up for that. Maybe he should try one of those nature soundtracks some people used as soothing background noise and see how that worked out._

 _He could hear Natsu moving about in the other room, searching for an old photo album that his father had asked for. Hmmm, maybe Zeref should go help him. He was probably the one who had put the album away when they moved in._

 _Zeref took another sip of the coffee then set the mug on the coffee table and went to join his partner in the bedroom._

" _Have you looked on the top shelf in the closet?"_

" _I'm just about to start on that."_

 _The closet door stood open, and Zeref made his way around it just in time to see his partner pull one of the books from the shelf that ran along the wall near the ceiling._

 _The Dragon Slayer glanced at the first page and said, "Hey, I didn't know you'd been writing stuff."_

 _Zeref started. He'd completely forgotten about those notebooks._

 _The exclamation escaped his lips in a rush before he could stop it. "Don't read it!"_

 _Natsu's eyebrows shot up. He lowered the notebook and looked over at him. "Why not?"_

" _It's... depressing."_

 _Honestly, "depressing" was a tremendous understatement._

" _It was... after that attack, and I was really... upset, and they told me to try writing things down to see if it helped..." Zeref trailed off and squirmed a bit under his partner's piercing stare. He'd been in a bad state then, and he didn't really want Natsu to know just_ how _bad. Natsu could probably guess at some of it, but guessing and knowing weren't the same. "I'll... try to write some happier things, and you can read those instead—if you want."_

 _Natsu narrowed his eyes and studied the other boy's face for a long moment. Eventually though, he shut the notebook and replaced it on the shelf._

" _All right."_

 _Zeref relaxed, relieved that Natsu wasn't going to push the issue. Although now, he'd gone and promised to write something cheerful. It was probably good practice for him, but when he sat down later that day to attempt it, he found himself drawing a complete blank._

 _How exactly did one go about writing something cheerful and lighthearted?_

" _Well," Levy said when he called her over the phone for advice, the blue-haired librarian being the only person he knew who did much writing, "I usually start by thinking about what makes me happy. Things that happen, things that people say or do—you know, those moments in life that you really want to remember for whatever reason."_

 _Moments in his life that he wanted to hold on to, that made him happy._

 _His gaze drifted over to where Natsu was on the phone, asking his father for the address that he'd like them to mail the album to. Well, it was pretty easy for Zeref to articulate what made him happy, which really meant there was only one topic he could possibly write about._

" _So," Levy said, startling him out of his reverie, "can I read it when you're done?"_

 _Zeref looked at the blank page in front of him. "If you want. I suppose it doesn't really matter."_

" _That's great. I'm curious to see what you come up with."_

 _A week later, after Zeref had sent her a copy of what he'd written, the librarian called him back while he was cooking breakfast._

" _Well, one thing's obvious," she said._

" _Hmmm?"_

 _It was Zeref's first ever attempt at making pancakes. He'd gotten the idea after stumbling across a cooking channel on the television, and he was positive that Natsu would love it._

" _You love him very, very much."_

" _I don't know what you're talking about," Zeref said, feigning ignorance. The pancake batter smelled rather nice, if he did say so himself._

" _I have a friend who's a writer, and she recently started her own magazine. Would you mind if I shared this with her?"_

" _Please don't."_

" _Why not? It's really pretty well written, and a lot of people like love stories."_

" _I'm supposed to be a ghost, remember? People aren't supposed to notice or remember me, not if they aren't directly involved with my work in some way."_

" _I know, but you can use a pen name. A lot of authors do. In fact, Lucy told me that many authors have several. Just think about it, all right? You don't have to decide right away."_

" _..."_

 _On the other end of the call, Levy leafed through the story again, pausing on a scene in a coffee shop partway through. "Did you make yourself a girl because it's more conventional?"_

" _Not really. I don't really care what other people think should be conventional."_

" _So then...?"_

 _He sighed. Obviously, she wasn't going to leave him alone._

" _I promised Natsu he could read whatever I wrote. This way, he won't realize I'm basing it on us."_

" _He won't?" Levy paused to think this over then chuckled. "No, you're right, he probably won't. He can be a bit dense, can't he?"_

" _Mm."_

...And that was how Zeref started writing love stories for Lucy Heartfilia's literary magazine, and how Natsu found himself reading a collection of warm and fluffy narratives that seemed, at times, suspiciously familiar, although he never could put his finger on why that was.

Come to think of it, their attempted excursions into "normalcy" had started around then too, beginning with a shopping trip to the mall. Knowing that there would be lots of crowds, Natsu had enlisted Sting and Rogue to help. Well, it was _supposed_ to be a shopping trip... Sort of...

" _So... what do most people do at the mall anyway?" Natsu asked, surveying the various stores that lined the many floors of the gigantic building complex. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been to a place like this. Neither Natsu nor his father had ever been all that interested in spending time at shopping malls._

" _Uh, buy things?" Sting suggested. "Eat?"_

" _I believe there's supposed to be a movie theatre around here too," Rogue added. "Somewhere..."_

 _Natsu frowned. "I thought we'd try a movie theatre some other time. Do we have anything that we need to buy?"_

 _This last question was directed at Zeref, who shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of."_

" _I don't think that's how it's supposed to work," Sting observed. "People don't usually go shopping because they really need anything. They just come to hang out and look for things that they might want."_

 _The other three contemplated this suggestion._

" _Sounds like a waste of time to me," Rogue said. "Natsu, why didn't you ask Wendy to come with us? You know, someone who actually likes shopping?"_

 _Natsu made a face. "Because Zeref makes her uncomfortable, and that makes Zeref uncomfortable. Can you imagine how short that trip would be?"_

 _This was followed by another thoughtful silence._

 _Zeref couldn't help it. He began to chuckle._

" _He's laughing at us," Sting said with mock dismay._

 _Rogue coughed. "Well, you have to admit that we haven't exactly thought this through."_

...Zeref remembered very little of what they'd actually done after that, probably because they hadn't done very much. They'd concluded that trips to the mall were not for everyone, and really, they had better things to do with their time.

The festival had been more interesting. It had been crowded, so they'd had to be careful to keep Zeref at the center of their little group, but amidst all the colors and the noise and the evening lights, it was easy for them to go unnoticed. They stopped at every food vender at the event, and Zeref allowed himself to try everything in the certain knowledge that three male Dragon Slayers would be more than capable of eating whatever he didn't finish. Zeref wasn't quite as interested in the game booths, but he liked watching the other three play. They'd acquired quite the collection of absurd knickknacks and stuffed animals by the end of it, almost all of which they'd given away to some very excited children. The only memento Zeref had kept was a large, white bear—extremely fluffy and almost spherical. It was just so... cuddly.

The only moment of awkwardness had been at the goldfish scoop...

" _I feel bad for those fish," Zeref said from beside Natsu when they join the crowd around the watery attraction, murmuring as though half to himself, "with all these people chasing them with paper nets and trying to take them from their home. If they don't get captured, they still suffer the constant harrassment of people who treat their lives like a game. And if they do get captured, they end up in plastic bags of water, and then who knows what happens to them."_

 _The three Dragon Slayers looked at the pool full of tiny, glittering, golden fish._

" _Well," Rogue offerec after a moment's thought, "I don't think fish thinkthat much."_

" _No," Zeref agreede, "but that's what we're supposed to do on their behalf."_

" _Sorry, you're losing me in this conversation," Sting said with a sigh. "If you don't want us to terrorize the fish with paper nets, then just say so. We aren't going to be annoyed."_

 _Zeref thought about this with a slight furrow in his brow while Natsu let out a huff of laughter. He knew his partner hadn't really been considering whether or not he approved of them partaking in this particular festival game. This was just the way Zeref thought about things—deeply, critically, and often with a touch of philosophical melancholy._

...Honestly though, it was good that Natsu had thought to invite the two younger Dragon Slayers on so many of these excursions, and not just for the extra security. It was difficult enough as it was for Zeref to build any lasting or meaningful relationships with other people. The fact that he actually got along with the two meant that Natsu wasn't the only person he could depend upon, especially after the new year started and Natsu officially began work with the various fire departments throughout the region.

The Fire Dragon Slayer's particular set of abilities meant he was invaluable in firefighting work, and it was simple enough for him to blend in with the other firefighters on the job. Zeref knew this, and he knew also that it was part of the work they had agreed to do. Still, that didn't make it any less difficult when assignments required that Natsu travel, however briefly, to other prefectures and cities. Sometimes, Zeref was allowed to accompany him, but more often than not, the fact that Zeref was classified as a serious natural hazard meant that he was required to remain at home.

The two weeks Natsu had been away during the drought that second summer after they'd started their life together had been only the first of half a dozen similar if less lengthy business trips that year. Before departing, Natsu had paid his friends a visit in their brand new hero agency downtown.

" _Just... drop in on him now and then, all right? Make sure he's doing okay."_

" _I'm sure he'll be too busy missing you to want to talk to us,"_ Sting had told him, " _but sure, no problem."_

They hadn't really understood why their friend was so concerned, since they'd only just begun really getting to know Zeref. But two weeks was a long time, and they would have checked in on Zeref even if Natsu hadn't asked...

 _When the door slid open, the first thing the two Dragon Slayers noticed was a distinct lack of the apartment's dark-haired resident._

" _Uh, Zeref?"_

 _A flicker of motion drew their attention to the couch where a book was briefly waved in the air before vanishing from sight again. The two young men moved around said couch and raised their eyebrows at what they found._

" _Why are you lying on the floor?"_

 _Zeref lowered his book and looked up at them. "Does it matter?"_

 _His visitors glanced at the thin, nearly invisible, gray fog leaking across the ivory carpet and decided that no, it really didn't._

" _Have you eaten lunch?" Sting asked instead, falling back on the list of questions Natsu had recommended they keep in mind._

 _Zeref thought about this... and thought about this..._

" _I'm fairly certain I had coffee and some toast."_

" _Coffee and toast," Rogue repeated. "That sounds like breakfast. You do realize that it's three in the afternoon, don't you?"_

 _Zeref picked up the phone on the floor by his head to look at the time. "I suppose it is."_

 _O—kay._

 _They gave up on being subtle._

" _Uh, you know that being depressed because you couldn't go with Natsu on this job isn't going to help, right?"_

 _Zeref blinked and finally seemed to really focus on them. There was a kind of quiet desperation in his dark eyes that they had never seen before._

" _But people have died in those wildfires. The weather is too dry, and the summer heat—it's all making the problem worse."_

" _There's no need for you to worry about Natsu," Rogue reminded him. "Dragon Slayers are very resilient. You could drop a building on us, and we wouldn't really be hurt. I should know. It happened to me once in school."_

" _And fire is his element," Sting added, just in case Zeref had somehow forgotten this rather significant fact. "You should know how strong he is. He'd expect you to have more faith in him."_

 _Zeref mulled this over for a long minute before saying, "I suppose you're right. I just... don't want him to get hurt."_

 _He trailed off, sinking back into his own solemn contemplations._

 _Right, time for a topic change._

 _Sting started to suggest that they go grab something to eat, glanced at the thin, dark mist around them that didn't appear to be going away, and changed what he'd been about to say. "How about we get takeout?"_

" _I'm not hung—"_

" _Just pick something."_

...For the next few days, Sting and Rogue made time in their schedules to drop in on Zeref every evening. They always brought food, and they didn't leave until Zeref had actually eaten something and Natsu phoned in to tell his partner about his day.

Things improved when, one week in, the two decided to bring him half a dozen cookbooks full of moderate to complicated recipes. They brought supplies too, and consulted one of their other friends for the proper kitchenware.

" _It's an, ah, really, really early Christmas present_ ," they told him. " _You need something to keep yourself busy, right? Reading's obviously not cutting it. And wouldn't it be nice if you could make something for him when he gets back? Besides, it's more relaxing for you guys to eat at home, isn't it?_ "

It was generally pretty easy to persuade Zeref to do something if they first convinced him that Natsu would approve, and the two weren't above taking advantage of this.

This plan had worked wonders, especially after Natsu finally returned home and made it known how much he liked his partner's newest hobby. As an added bonus, Zeref had to sample what he cooked in order to figure out if it was any good, which cut down on the chances of him starving himself out of a simple lack of desire to eat.

Honestly, the two younger Dragon Slayers hadn't realized until then quite how unstable Zeref's mood could be when he was alone, and they were two of only a very short list of people who could actually help.

Of course, there was Natsu's father and Mr. Aizawa, but the former went on far too many business trips and the latter wasn't actually immune to Zeref's abilities. Besides, Aizawa wasn't particularly sociable himself and didn't care much for extended conversations.

Zeref himself was the other part of the problem though, something he freely admitted. He was just as uncomfortable trying to reach out to other people as he was about allowing other people to reach out to him...

" _Why don't you want to go with me?" Natsu demanded._

 _He stood in front of the couch where Zeref was sitting, preparing to settle down with a new book while his partner went to his second high school class reunion._

 _Zeref looked up at him, a little startled by the glower on his partner's face. The year before, he had declined Natsu's invitation to accompany him to his high school reunion as a matter of course. It had been their first year living out here, and he'd still been figuring things out. That was a year ago now, but he hadn't expected the Dragon Slayer to react this way simply because he'd declined his invitation a second time._

" _They'll ask questions," Zeref pointed out._

 _Questions that they probably wouldn't be able to answer._

" _So? Let them ask."_

 _Zeref shifted his weight a little uncomfortably on the couch cushions. "I'm afraid it will be awkward. I... don't want to make things uncomfortable."_

 _Lime green eyes narrowed for a moment, but then Natsu sighed. "Fine. I'll go by myself again this year, but just so you know, I really want you to go. You can't just hide from everyone forever. That wasn't the point."_

 _The point._

 _Zeref thought about this as he watched Natsu grab his jacket and head out the door. He knew Natsu was right, but it was hard to let go of his old anxieties. Meeting and talking with people while they were working was one thing. He'd learned to handle business relationships. But meeting and talking with people like Natsu's old high school friends just wasn't the same._

 _Natsu had said he wanted Zeref to go with him though._

 _Zeref shifted on the couch, slightly upset by the thought that Natsu might be upset with him. It hadn't occurred to him that it would matter one way or another to his partner if he went with him to his class reunion or not. That had been stupid though, hadn't it? He cared about Natsu and wanted to spend time with him. It was stupid not to consider the fact that Natsu might feel the same. Zeref didn't want to cause him any trouble, but maybe that was the wrong way to be thinking about this._

 _What did it mean really, to be a part of someone else's life? They didn't have to do everything together. They weren't like those clingy couples who couldn't stand to do anything apart. But maybe it was that choice of wanting to do something together, of easing into the activities that each of them enjoyed as part of their lives. Natsu teaching him ping pong had been one of these. Zeref teaching Natsu how to play chess and reading stories aloud to the Dragon Slayer when he was feeling lazy was something like that too. Sharing their time, their interests, their lives. Perhaps what it meant, then, was giving a chance to those things in your partner's life that you weren't sure about so that maybe, just maybe, it could become a part of your life too._

 _Well, he supposed he could try to go next year. That gave him a whole twelve months to get used to the idea and to try and find something positive about it._

 _Less agitated now that he'd settled on what to do, he picked up his book again._

...Unfortunately, he still hadn't been able to fulfill that resolution. The third time Natsu's high school reunion had rolled around, Zeref was in the hospital, and both of them missed the gathering entirely.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

.


End file.
